President Joe Biden will not seek an extension of the enhanced $300 weekly unemployment benefits past September 6 when they are set to expire.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen confirmed that the extra weekly payments would not continue, in a letter to the Senate and House and Senate finance committee chairs on Thursday.

‘The temporary $300 boost in benefits will expire on September 6th, as planned,’ Walsh and Yellen wrote. ‘As President Biden has said, the boost was always intended to be temporary and it is appropriate for that benefit boost to expire.’

However, the officials said states can use their share of money from the $350billion in stimulus funds to give additional payments to their unemployed residents.

Boosted unemployment payments began last year with the CARES Act under former President Donald Trump to support Americans who were out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The extra payments were originally $600 but were later halved. The $300 payments were extended two times, most recently with Biden’s American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March.

Biden faced criticism from Republican lawmakers who claim that the enhanced unemployment benefits created a disincentive for Americans to go back to work or look for new jobs.

Walsh and Yellen acknowledged that the pandemic brought to light ‘serious problems’ in the unemployment insurance (UI) system. Biden is urging Congress to include a reform of the system within Senate Democrats’ $3.5trillion reconciliation bill.

‘The President has already laid out his principles for such reform: he believes a 21st century UI system should prevent fraud, promote equitable access, ensure timeliness of benefits, provide adequate support to the unemployed, and automatically expand benefits in a recession,’ Walsh and Yellen wrote.

The US’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, according to the July jobs report, down from 5.9% the previous month.

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