The state of Minnesota has applied for a federal program that will temporarily provide up $300 a week in additional unemployment benefits to Minnesotans who have lost work because of the coronavirus pandemic.
About 35 other states already applied and were approved to be part of the Lost Wages Assistance Program, which is being administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And at least five states — Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — have already begun disbursing the funds to residents. But it could take other states weeks to start paying it out as they work to adjust their computer systems.
Steve Grove, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said the state has already completed all of the necessary work to make sure it can make payments as soon as the funding is transferred from the federal government. The payments could start showing up in workers’ unemployment checks by the end of next week or the following week.
“We know Minnesotans are anxious to receive these supplemental payments, and we are doing all we can to make that happen as quickly as posible,” he said in a statement Friday.
The first three weeks of payments will be retroactive to the week ending Aug. 1, so eligible recipients will receive the payments if they were receiving benefits the weeks of July 26-Aug. 1, Aug. 2-8, and Aug. 9-15. Unemployed workers do not have to apply for the extra benefits, but will automatically receive them if they are eligible.
The supplemental funds were authorized by an executive order President Donald Trump signed after Congress and the White House earlier this month were unable to agree on a new coronavirus relief package.
Unemployed workers had been receiving $600 a week from the federal government as part of the CARES Act, but that benefit expired last month. Those extra funds had been helping many workers pay their rent and other bills during the pandemic.
It’s unclear how long the additional $300 a week will last after initially covering at least three weeks of unemployment benefits. The program will continue until a $44 billion disaster relief fund runs out. DEED said it expects the funds to last 5 to 8 weeks.
In order to qualify for the additional $300, recipients must have lost work because of the pandemic and be receiving at least $100 in state unemployment benefits.
Minnesota state officials had indicated they planned to apply to the program, but had waited to apply as they asked FEMA for more clarification about how the program will work.
Six months into the pandemic, about 350,000 Minnesotans continue to collect unemployment benefits.
Minnesota’s unemployment rate, which peaked in May at 9.9%, fell to 7.7% last month. The state has recovered about a third of the jobs lost so far during the pandemic, but the rebound in jobs slowed last month after a bigger bounceback in June once more businesses were able to reopen at limited capacities.