In regard to today’s story about extended unemployment benefits running out at the end of the week, here’s my best stab at explaining what happens if Congress does not keep the program going. If you’re collecting benefits in Kentucky or Indiana — especially if you’re on one of the federally funded extension periods — this will help you can figure out how much more time you’ll have before the checks run out.

Currently up to 99 weeks of benefits are available in Kentucky and Indiana, and it breaks down into three categories: regular state benefits (the first 26 weeks); Extended Unemployment Compensation or EUC (the next 53 weeks) and Extended Benefits (the final 20 weeks).

If Congress does nothing…

• If you are in your initial 26-week period, you will not be able to draw more than 26 weeks, unless you exhaust those 26 weeks and move into the first extension period by Feb. 28. The initial 26 weeks are funded by the states, and these benefits alone are what caused the Kentucky and Indiana unemployment trust funds to go broke (for now, the federal government is loaning money to the states, and it will eventually have to be paid back with higher business taxes).

• Here’s where it gets complicated. The next 53 benefits are funded by the federal government through the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (EUC). This program was first enacted in 2008 and has been both extended and expanded several times since then. The 53 weeks are broken into four “tiers.” Tier I = first 20 weeks. Tier II = next 14 weeks. Tier III = next 13 weeks. Tier IV (which is not available in all states but is active in Kentucky and Indiana) = final 6 weeks. The way the law is written, claimants get to finish whatever tier they are in when the EUC program expires March 1. So, for example, if you are currently in your fifth week of EUC Tier I, you would be able to collect benefits for the rest of that tier (i.e. 15 more weeks), but once that’s up, you would be able to move into Tier II (or tiers III or IV). This is what I mean when I say in today’s article that the benefits would “phase out” depending on each individual situation.

• Beyond EUC, there is one more program called Extended Benefits (what a descriptive name…) that provides another 13-20 weeks in bad economic times. This program was not a creature of the recession; it has been around a long time. The way it usually works, the states split the cost of providing EB 50-50 with the federal government. However, one of the provisions of the stimulus package was a full federally funding of EB. This too is set to expire at the end of the week unless Congress acts. According to Rick McHugh, an attorney with the National Employment Law Project, EB would not continue in Kentucky or Indiana once the 100 percent federal funding provision is removed. To explain why would take an entirely new blog post. But the point is that this extra batch of benefits also will not continue. The folks who have already made to the EB stage by Feb. 28 will likely get to finish out the program (which is 20 weeks in Kentucky and Indiana), according to Rich Hobbie, executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

Whew… How’s that for a simple government program? It seems as though Congress intends to address this issue sooner rather than later, but it will be interesting to see whether they enact a broad extension through the end of the year, as labor groups want, or whether they pass another short stop-gap measure, in which case all of these questions will be raised again in a few months.