$300 unemployment bonus runs into technical snags in Colorado after people overwhelm request system – By Tamara Chuang (The Colorado Sun) / Sept 16 2020
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment disabled its online certification system for the Lost Wages Assistance, created by President Donald Trump, and will notify eligible users when it’s ready again
A federal program expected to launch Thursday to provide some unemployed Coloradans an extra $300 a week in jobless benefits was flooded with so many requests that the state labor department was forced to disable the certification process late Wednesday.
The hiccup should not prevent eligible users from getting the federal Lost Wages Assistance benefits, state officials said, but so far only 16,000 out of 220,000 eligible users have been certified to receive the aid. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will be in touch with folks who still need to certify, said Cher Haavind, the department’s deputy director.
“We will be emailing all claimants today with an update and will send additional communications once the technical issues are resolved,” she wrote in an email. “These technical difficulties will not impact claimants’ ability to receive these benefits.”
The $44 billion program, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency under an executive order from President Donald Trump, was set to start Thursday in Colorado. People who received at least $100 of weekly benefits between July 26 and Sept. 5 are eligible for the bonus of up to $1,800 total for six weeks worth of benefits.
Continue to article: https://coloradosun.com/2020/09/16/300-unemployment-bonus-lwa-lost-wages-payment/
