The Department of Workforce Development announced Wednesday that the department has deployed the Lost Wages Assistance program.
The program is a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that provides an additional $300 per week to eligible people who certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.
DWD began releasing benefits October 15 and will continue making payments over the next week.
"Staff at DWD have worked diligently to program a complex program that will get additional unemployment insurance dollars into the hands of out-of-work Wisconsinites," Deputy Secretary Robert Cherry said in a release. "The program falls far short of what individuals who have had their employment affected by the pandemic need, and in Wisconsin, we will continue to look at ways to help individuals during this difficult time."
To receive the money, claimants also must have a weekly benefit rate of at least $100 in one of the following unemployment-related assistance programs: regular Unemployment Insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), or Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA).
FEMA approved Wisconsin for the program on September 1. The benefit payments are estimated to result in another $224 million in the hands of Wisconsinites.
Payments from the program will be made retroactively to eligible claimants for up to six weeks: the weeks ending August 1, August 8, August 15, August 22, August 29, and September 5, 2020.
FEMA will not fund any weeks after September 5, 2020.
For more information on the program, click here.
https://wkow.com/2020/10/21/dwd-lost-wages-assistance-program-now-available-for-unemployed/