CRANSTON — About 14,000 out-of-work Rhode Islanders will be eligible for up to 20 weeks of additional unemployment benefits as a result of legislation approved by Congress on Thursday and signed into law yesterday by President Bush.

Payments could begin as soon as Dec. 6, said Raymond A. Filippone, assistant director of the state Department of Labor and Training, who oversees unemployment insurance.

In Rhode Island, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit is $528. When additional payments for dependents are included, the weekly maximum is $660. (The average weekly benefit is $350, Filippone said.)

The new law comes a day after the Department of Labor and Training reported that the state’s unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent last month — the highest since February 1983. The national unemployment rate is 6.5 percent.

About 52,900 Rhode Islanders are out of work, the agency said.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said in a statement that the measure authorizing the federal extension of benefits “will provide $6 billion worth of assistance to help job seekers nationwide who are struggling to make ends meet while they look for work in an increasingly difficult job market.”

Reed added, “As we approach the holiday season, the legislation we passed … provides targeted assistance to people who are looking for work and another needed layer of unemployment benefits as jobs are becoming scarcer.”

At the Department of Labor and Training headquarters in Cranston yesterday, state officials were in the process of implementing provisions of the new law.

The agency expects to issue a formal announcement early next week providing details. But in an interview in Cranston yesterday afternoon, state officials offered an outline of how the program will work.

For example, those eligible for the additional benefits will include people who are currently receiving extended unemployment benefits or who formerly received extended benefits, Filippone said.

Those eligible will be formally notified by mail; letters could go out by Dec. 6 and the first payments could begin by then, too, Filippone and agency spokeswoman Laura Hart said.

The agency will also post details on its Web site:

www.dlt.ri.gov

In addition to the estimated 14,000 unemployed workers who are eligible for extended benefits starting next month, more unemployed Rhode Islanders could become eligible later on, Hart said.

Employers pay taxes to cover unemployment benefits. Employers pay a state tax, which is deposited into the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund; they also pay a federal tax, which goes into a federal pool.

The state’s trust fund has dropped by nearly 40 percent in the last year, mainly because more people are out of work and drawing benefits.

The amount of reserves held in the trust fund was $116.8 million as of Sept. 30, down from $191.7 million at the same point last year, state figures show.

However, the extended benefits authorized by the law enacted yesterday will be paid entirely with federal funds, Filippone and Hart said.

Under the new law, seven extra weeks of payments will generally go to those who have exhausted their benefits or will exhaust them soon, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Those in Rhode Island and other states in which the unemployment rate is above 6 percent will be entitled to an additional 13 weeks.

The extended benefits authorized by the law enacted yesterday are in addition to the 13 weeks of federally funded extended benefits that Congress approved last June.

Overall, as a result of the new law and the complex way in which unemployment rules work, an unemployed worker in Rhode Island could end up collecting benefits for a total of up to 79 weeks when benefits from both the state’s own programs and federal extensions are taken into account:

•A maximum of 26 weeks through the state’s own unemployment insurance program related to an initial claim for benefits.

•A maximum of 20 additional weeks of federally provided benefits under a federal unemployment insurance program administered by Rhode Island. (This includes 7 extra weeks authorized by the law enacted yesterday.)

•A maximum of 13 weeks of federally provided benefits, administered by Rhode Island, as a result of the law enacted yesterday.

•A maximum of 20 weeks under Rhode Island’s own extended benefit program.

ndowning@projo.com