As the Senate has failed back to push the February 28 deadline for the extended unemployment benefits, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy for that matter. Federal unemployment benefits came into picture after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expired.

It was during the recessionary blues that the Congress had approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds. These aforementioned federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

However, as the Senate has not been able to move as desired, the jobless will have to move out of the benefits once they run out of state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

According to a report by the National Unemployment Law Project, nearly 5 million people will run out of benefits by June and will be left without the income that they have been banking on for a long time now. It is estimated that 11.5 million people currently depend on jobless benefits for their survival and nearly one in 10 Americans are out of work and a record 41.2% have been unemployed for at least six months now.