CNN BUSINESS | The end of $600 stimulus checks has left unemployed Americans facing financial ruin

New York (CNN) – Congress’ failure to extend supplemental unemployment insurance benefits is taking a serious financial toll on millions of laid-off or furloughed US workers and exacerbating wealth inequality, according to a new study.

Many out-of-work Americans were able to maintain their finances through August, in large part because of the weekly $600 supplemental unemployment benefit checks they were receiving through the CARES Act, which expired at the end of July, according to a new paper by researchers from Harvard, the University of Oxford and George Washington University.

But that financial stability crumbled in September and October as negotiations on a new stimulus bill reached a stalemate.  —read more—