Employment Security Department begins processing eligible $300 payments Sept. 21

On September 21^st, the state Employment Security Department (ESD) will start processing and distributing $300 payments as part of the federal Lost Wages Assistance program. The state was approved for the short-term federal program in late August.  The program provides an additional $300 a week in federal aid for a limited period of time to eligible persons who’ve lost work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and are receiving unemployment. Eligible claimants should receive the payments in their accounts as their bank processes the ESD payment within several days.

The benefit is currently time-limited to only a three-week period, between July 26 and Aug. 15, 2020, and not everyone who has filed an unemployment claim will be eligible. ESD will continue to apply for additional weeks of funds as long as the money is available.”

Lost Wages Assistance is a temporary emergency measure to provide additional unemployment benefits to eligible claimants. It is not the same as the additional $600 per week that was available under the CARES Act, which expired at the end of July. Lost Wages Assistance has different requirements for eligibility and is drawn from a limited pool of money to be shared among all states that apply and are approved.

For more details, click here.