It’s tough enough being out of work and forced to rely on none-too-generous unemployment insurance benefits, but now thanks to sequestration, long-term jobless workers are seeing a reduction in their lifeline benefits.

According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits, which help workers after they exhaust state-level programs (most provide around 26 weeks of benefits), are being cut by 15%, or about $43 from the average $289 weekly EUC benefit.

Working families are calling on Congress to repeal the job-killing sequester. 

Nearly 40% of people without jobs —about 4.4 million—have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. Some 8% of this year’s sequestration cuts are aimed at the modest benefits provided to these workers, the report says.

The cuts to each check become more severe the longer a state waits to implement them. Maryland and New Jersey are cutting benefits by more than 22%. Seven states cut benefits in May and June, reducing checks by 16.8% to 22.2%. Other states have eliminated weeks rather than reduce benefits—Maine cut the last eight weeks of benefits and Florida eliminated the last four. California, the state with the most workers collecting EUC benefits, cut checks by 17.7% in May alone for 120,000 workers. About 429,000 will experience cuts through Sept. 30 and 531,000 by the end of the year, if sequestration continues.

Jobless workers in North Carolina lost their long-term benefits because of cuts the Republican legislature passed in February that went into effect July 1. Those cuts—as lawmakers knew at the time—made the state ineligible for federal EUC funds. Read more .  

Working families are  calling on their elected representatives  to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts, repeal the sequester and make sure corporations and the wealthiest 2% pay their fair share through closing tax loopholes. 

Read more from NELP and Think Progress .