HEALS vs HEROES Unemployment Calculator

In mid-2020, Congress debated replacing the expired $600 CARES FPUC supplement. The HEROES Act path kept a $600 weekly federal add-on. The HEALS Act path used a $200 weekly add-on. For any given state weekly benefit, the extra money in the HEROES design versus HEALS is $400 per week. The HEALS vs HEROES unemployment calculator reports that difference times the number of weeks you enter. Algebraically the state benefit cancels: ((state + 600) − (state + 200)) × weeks = 400 × weeks. Four weeks produce a $1,600 gap. Ten weeks produce $4,000. Twenty weeks produce $8,000. You still enter a state weekly benefit so the scenario matches a real claim, even though it does not change the dollar difference between the two federal add-ons. Use the figure to understand why the $600 versus $200 debate was so large in household cash-flow terms. It is a legislative comparison, not a current benefit estimator. Neither bill’s unemployment title became law in the simple form modeled here; later relief used a $300 weekly Lost Wages Assistance payment and then a $300 weekly FPUC revival under later statutes. The model ignores eligibility, phase-outs, dependent allowances, and state maximums. It also ignores taxes. If you need after-tax cash, apply withholding separately. Recalculate only the week count that would have been covered by a federal supplement, and treat the result as a historical policy gap rather than money a state agency owes today. Household budgets in 2020 hinged on whether the extra federal check was $200 or $600 because rent, food, and health insurance did not scale with the legislative label. A claimant with a $350 state check would take home $550 a week under HEALS versus $950 under HEROES before tax, which is why the $400 gap dominates the comparison. When you present the result, say that it is extra federal aid only, not the full unemployment check. Pair it with the CARES calculator if you also need a $600-plus-state net estimate for the months FPUC actually paid.