The end of insurance for the long-term unemployed is the result of a federal-budget deal reached by Republicans and Democrats in Congress that eliminated the extension of benefits for the jobless, in effect since 2008 to ease the effects of the deepest, most prolonged recession in the US in almost 80 years.

The end of federal unemployment benefits is the second blow to strike some of the neediest people in the country, following the deep cuts in the food stamps programme made by Congress in November.