The coronavirus pandemic has been a disaster on many levels. Now, the federal agency in charge with disaster relief — FEMA — is being used to steer more funding to unemployed Americans all over the country. The takeaway is that people could be getting an extra $300 weekly in unemployment benefits very soon, if they haven’t begun receiving it already.
Congress allowed several coronavirus relief measures to expire in July, cutting off a lifeline for millions of Americans who had been receiving an extra $600 per week in unemployment payments. While some new relief is on the way, be warned that the latest payments are less generous than the original plan — the new benefits are capped at $300 per week from the federal government. What’s more, the special new payments aren’t available in every state. It’s also sometimes unclear when, exactly, the added unemployment payments will be sent out to people struggling to pay their bills.
Roughly a week after the $600 payments expired at the end of July, President Donald Trump issued an order authorizing FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to work with the states and pay up to $300 per week in extra unemployment benefits to eligible recipients. The extra $300 payments were approved for only three weeks, retroactive to the week beginning August 1, though officials have said the program could be extended.
It has been up to each state to apply through FEMA for the program, dubbed LWA (Lost Wages Assistance). As of August 31, three dozen states had applied and been approved. It appears as if a handful of states have already begun sending out the extra $300 payments to eligible unemployed residents. Many other states say that it could take a couple weeks, or even longer, before they can incorporate the FEMA funds and send payments out. Still other states are still in the process of applying, or perhaps have so far decided to skip the program entirely.
Initially, the White House suggested that federal funds would be used for extra $300 weekly payments, and that the states themselves would add another $100 — for a total of $400 per week. But most states say they are already struggling with tight budgets as they cope with they pandemic and its fallout, and they cannot afford the extra $100. As a result, most recipients will be getting just the extra $300, on top of whatever unemployment payment they’re already eligible for in their state.
Generally speaking, here are the rules concerning eligibility for the extra unemployment payments provided by FEMA and the states:
• You must be eligible for unemployment benefits during the first three weeks of August 2020.
• Your weekly unemployment benefit must be at least $100 per week.
• You must have become unemployed or seen your hours reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic.
How to Get Extra $300 Unemployment Payments
For the most part, it looks like recipients do not need to do anything special to get their extra $300 in unemployment benefits. For example, Minnesota states explicitly: “Applicants do not have to do anything extra to receive LWA payments.”
However, some states are a little vague on the particulars. Below, in our state-by-state guide, we’ve marked as “unclear” the states that have not clearly said on their unemployment website if a recipient needs to do anything in order to receive the extra $300.
Our advice is to read the fine print of your state’s unemployment benefits’ webpage (we’ve provided links to key pages below), and follow their instructions, to make sure you are getting the most money possible. If you are already receiving unemployment, you should absolutely continue to do the same paperwork and file claims like usual.
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