States that pass certain laws could get additional federal unemployment benefits.

Here's a closer look:

Extended benefits: Normally, people who qualify for unemployment benefits get them for a maximum of 26 weeks. These are known as regular benefits and are paid out of state trust funds with money that comes from employers.

During recessions, the federal government usually gives states money to pay for additional weeks of benefits. This is known as emergency unemployment compensation or extended benefits.

Last year, the federal government agreed to provide up to 20 weeks of extended benefits in all states plus up to 13 weeks on top of that in high-unemployment states including California.

In California, you can now receive up to 26 weeks in regular benefits plus 33 weeks in extended benefits for a maximum of 59 weeks.

The stimulus bill doesn't add any new weeks of benefits, but it does extend the period of time to qualify for extended benefits.

Before the stimulus bill passed, you had to run out of regular benefits before the end of March 2009 to get extended benefits. Now you have to run out by Dec. 31, 2009.

To get any unemployment compensation, you must have sufficient earnings in your base period, which is the 12-month period three to six months before you filed your unemployment claim. You also must be looking for and able to work and meet other requirements. Not everybody who gets regular benefits can get an extension because the rules for extended benefits are a bit tougher. And many won't get the maximum.

$25 raise: Everyone receiving unemployment benefits will get an extra $25 a week starting as early as next week. To get the raise, you must be collecting regular or extended benefits on or before Dec. 31, 2009. However, once you get the raise, you will continue getting it through June 30, 2010.

In California, the raise will come automatically. It will increase the maximum weekly benefit to $475 from $450.

Income tax break: Normally, you must pay federal income tax on all unemployment compensation. Under the stimulus, the first $2,400 in unemployment compensation received in 2009 is not subject to federal tax. California does not tax unemployment.

COBRA subsidy: A law known as COBRA lets many workers who leave their jobs continue their health coverage, but employers can require them to pay the entire premium.

Under the stimulus act, people who sign up for COBRA will have to pay 35 percent of the premium and the federal government will reimburse employers or health plans for the remaining 65 percent for up to nine months.

To qualify, you must be involuntarily terminated from your job between Sept. 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. The subsidy phases out between $125,000 and $145,000 in adjusted gross income for singles and between $250,000 to $290,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The subsidy can also cover your spouse, partner or dependents who were in the health plan. However, you cannot get the subsidy if you are eligible for another group plan, such as your spouse's, or Medicare.

If you lost your job after Sept. 1, 2008 and declined COBRA, you get another chance to enroll. For details, ask your former employer.

Additional benefits: States that pass certain laws would get even more money under two other provisions of the stimulus act.

Under the first, states could get federal funds if they make benefits available to more people, especially low-income and part-time workers.

First, they must create an alternative base period, which includes a worker's more-recent earnings than the traditional base period. This would help more people with new or spotty work histories.

Second, they must provide benefits to at least two out of four categories of people, including part-timers and people in training. California already provides benefits to three of the four categories.

If California adopts the alternative base period, it could get $844 million from the federal government. This would go into the state's unemployment insurance fund, which is empty. (The state has been borrowing from the feds to pay benefits.)

A bill to create the alternative base period has been introduced. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to get the extra money. Some governors do not.

Under the second provision, states could get even more federal funding if they relax the definition of unemployment in an existing program that rarely kicks in because the definition is too strict.

States have been reluctant to change the definition because they have to pay for half of the program. Under the stimulus plan, the federal government would pick up the whole tab through at least the end of this year. States could pass a law that relaxed the definition only as long as the federal funds held out, says Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project.

If California passed the law, people could get up to 20 additional weeks of benefits on top of the 59 maximum, for a total of 79 weeks, Emsellem says.

State leaders are still evaluating this program.

Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle