This web page is not being up to date. As of mid-September, greater than 30 states had begun paying advantages.
In early August, President Trump declared a plan to ship $400 in further weekly advantages to tens of hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans — a short-term repair meant to switch the $600-a-week emergency federal complement that expired in July. The program is named Lost Wages Assistance.
What is now clear is that the federal complement is $300 per week, not $400. And few states have began paying out.
Here is what we all know.
Most unemployed staff will get an additional $300 per week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which usually gives catastrophe aid, will present $300 per recipient. An extra $100 was speculated to be equipped by states, however most are struggling to satisfy different bills. Tax revenues have been sinking on the similar time that prices — like precautions to curb the unfold of the coronavirus — have soared. Ultimately the administration mentioned the states’ primary profit funds may very well be counted towards their $100 share.
As of Sept. 1, solely three states, Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia, had decided to supply the extra $100. Vermont’s plan to bring the total payment to $400 was awaiting approval from the state’s legislature. Kansas also had said it planned to supply the extra $100.
Jobless workers with small unemployment benefits will not get the supplement.
Only people who qualify for at least $100 per week in unemployment benefits — either through the regular state program or a federal pandemic assistance program — are eligible for the extra federal funds.
In Colorado, for example, roughly 28,000 people, or about 6 percent currently receiving unemployment pay, will not receive the new benefit, said Cher Haavind, deputy executive director of the state Department of Labor.
49 states have signed on so far.
As of Sept. 17, funds had been approved for 49 states, plus Washington, D.C., and two territories:
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
U.S. Virgin Islands
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington, D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
One state has declined to take part. South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem, announced that her state would forgo the federal funds, saying they were not needed because South Dakota had recovered 80 percent of its job losses.
Payments could still be weeks away.
Each state is supposed to administer the new supplement, just as it processes regular state unemployment insurance and federal pandemic jobless benefits.
In the spring, when state unemployment systems were overwhelmed with claims, there were delays of weeks or even months because computer systems had to be updated and reprogrammed, and staff members trained.
Now states must again work out how to process a new program while they keep existing benefits flowing. New claims for state jobless benefits unexpectedly jumped in the most recent weekly report to 1.1 million.
On a conference call with reporters on Thursday, John P. Pallasch, assistant secretary for employment and training at the Labor Department, said it could take some states up to six weeks to figure out how to get a program up and running.
On Aug. 17, Arizona became the first state to start paying out. By Wednesday, five additional states — Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Texas — had started paying out benefits, according to the Labor Department.
Most states, however, said it could take until mid-September or later to reprogram computer systems and take other steps to get the money to recipients. Some states don’t expect to send out funds until early October.
The extra benefit is likely to run out in September.
To finance the program without a congressional appropriation, Mr. Trump set it up to draw from federal disaster funds — a limited pool — and the administration said that no more than $44 billion would be spent.
According to estimates from FEMA and the Labor Department, that sum will cover four or five weeks of payments. The funds are supposed to be retroactive to Aug. 1, so recipients might be paid only through early September.
Keith Turi, a FEMA official, said on the call on Thursday that the initial approvals were for three weeks. “We’ll add additional weeks from there as needed,” he said.
Congress is at an impasse on longer-term support.
Mr. Trump acted after Democrats and Republicans were unable to work out a deal on supplemental benefits before the August congressional recess. Democrats have steadfastly supported restarting the $600 weekly booster that ended last month. Republicans have pushed for a smaller supplement — initially proposing $200 a week, arguing that bigger sums discourage people from returning to work.
Studies by economists across the political spectrum have concluded that the additional benefits have not deterred job seekers. The latest, by the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago, found that despite anecdotal reports of people turning down jobs, “very few workers would not have returned to work” if given the opportunity. For most, the temporary nature of the supplement, the difficulty of finding another job, and concerns about career setbacks and permanently lower wages outweigh the short-term financial gain. And workers who reject job offers are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.
Nearly 30 million people are receiving some form of jobless benefits. At the end of June, there were roughly 5.9 million job openings.
Economists say the emergency federal checks this year have kept the economy functioning, fueling spending that has supported restaurants, retailers and other businesses. The $600-a-week supplement injected roughly $70 billion a month into the economy between April and July, almost 5 percent of total household income.
Nelson D. Schwartz contributed reporting.
