Cooper: NC unemployment checks could include extra money as soon as next week

That money won't last long. So far, the federal government has approved only enough money to cover three weeks of payments, all of which have already passed. The benefits will be paid retroactively.

Congress may eventually approve more funding, and it's possible that the North Carolina General Assembly will increase state-funded benefits when they gather for another legislative session next week.

A $600-a-week unemployment boost, also funded by the federal government, ran out in late July. President Donald Trump announced the $300 increase, funded out of a federal disaster account, when Congress failed to strike a bargain on extending at least some of that boost.