Let’s say a person earned most income through larger freelance jobs from movies, but took lower-paying jobs at restaurants in between. Such a worker would qualify for lower, state-level benefits based on the restaurant work.

This $100 weekly payment would be added to the $300 weekly federal benefit, and would also end on March 14. The benefit will begin only after your state reaches an agreement with the Labor Department.

How long will I have to wait for benefits?

If your benefits have already run out, experts said to check your state’s website for further instruction about whether you’ll be required to do anything to receive the extra 11 weeks of aid. The states will probably reinstate them automatically, but expect to wait at least a few weeks.

“You may have to wait through part of January to get access to benefits that stopped at the end of December,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst for social insurance at the National Employment Law Project. “If Congress passes relief, it has historically been structured so that your benefits are restored beginning the date of enactment. So there shouldn’t be a gap in your eligibility if that happens, just a gap in when you get paid.”

What if my unemployment agency says I’ve been paid too much?

Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been overpaid by the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, in large part because of administrative errors that occurred while trying to quickly push benefits out using a new program. Federal guidance changed three times, experts said, and mistakes were inevitable. Some people were overpaid thousands — maybe even tens of thousands — of dollars.

The problem now: Even when the state is at fault for overpayment, the recipient is still generally responsible. And states often collect what’s owed by automatically withholding a portion of a person’s benefit.

The latest legislation would fix that by giving states the discretion to waive the overpayments when honest mistakes were made that could be painful for the claimant to repay, Ms. Evermore said.