When the benefits run out - and still no job

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two years on the unemployment line is devastating. You deplete your savings. You borrow from your family. You feel that your life is slipping out of your control.

As the ranks of the long-term unemployed grow, the politicians in Washington are fighting over whether to extend deadlines so more people can get the maximum of 99 weeks of benefits.

But 99 weeks is the cap. For Americans surviving on jobless benefits, that's the end of the road. And there's no movement in Washington to come to their aid.

In fact, by the end of the year, more than 1 million people will have exhausted their 99 weeks and still be without work, according to Andrew Stettner, deputy director at the National Employment Law Project. (Share your unemployment story on iReport.)

Many have already started falling through the safety net. These people are coping any way they can, often reaching out for other aid from agencies and charities.

People like 36-year-old Kevin Huffer. The former car salesmen collected his last $430 weekly unemployment check in March.

"I've applied for every job under the sun for the past two years -- ones that I know I can't get and ones I know I should have gotten," Huffer said. The resident of Chatham, N.Y., has yet to receive even a phone call in response to a job application. He has taken his job search 30 miles north to Albany, where he recently applied to be a Ford car salesman. His wife Heather, 32, is also looking for a job.