Deciphering who gets what unemployment benefit

Here's the headline number: A total of 410,695 Californians will be cut off from jobless benefits if legislators don't extend funding by Nov. 30 (a very strong possibility). This can be complicated because there are so many tiers in the process, but in basic terms everyone remains covered for their first six months. After that it gets dicey. The OC Register's Mary Ann Milbourn lays out the specifics:

* If you are on your first 26 weeks of standard state unemployment benefits, you would be able to collect all 26 weeks, but you would not be eligible for any extensions beyond that. You would be cut off after 26 weeks. NELP estimates 74,295 Californians in this group could lose their benefits by Dec. 31.

* If you are collecting under one of the four tiers of extended benefits, you would continue to get checks until you have completed the tier you're in. Then you would be cut off. For example, if you are collecting benefits under Tier 2, you would be able to get up to 14 weeks of benefits but you wouldn't be able to move to Tier 3. NELP estimates 151,341 Californians in this category could lose their benefits by year's end.

* If you are on so-called FedEd, the emergency benefit program for high-unemployment states like California, you would be cut off immediately even if you haven't collected all 20 weeks of aid. Without further Congressional authorization, California no longer would meet the criteria for the program and no more checks could be issued. NELP estimates 185,058 Californians could see an immediate cutoff of these benefits.

Congressional Republicans are taking special aim at folks who have received 99 weeks of benefits. They say that these people aren't trying to find work, and besides, the benefit extensions cost too much money. By the way NPR is doing a series this week on the plight of the long-term unemployed. From this morning's first part:

Being out of work for more than six months isn't for the faint of heart. "I really think that if people aren't going through this right now, they don't get it," says Shelia Egan, a 47-year-old single mother who has been out of work for more than a year. "They don't see how difficult it really is." Egan sold pharmaceuticals for a big European firm for 11 years and earned a six-figure salary. Prior to that, she had applied for only five jobs during her career. "And of those five jobs, I got four of them," she says. "And it has been very jarring to apply for a job that asks for one or two years [of] experience, [and] you have 10 and you don't even get a call."