Few States Taking Up Trump’s Unemployment Offer So Far – By Arthur Delaney (Huff Post) / Aug 17 2020
And in participating states, it could still take weeks for people to receive the money.
Most states have not asked to participate in President Donald Trump’s proposal to replace the extra $600 unemployment benefit that lapsed amid congressional dithering last month with a smaller “lost wages assistance program.”
Democrats pushed to save the $600 supplemental benefit as part of a bigger coronavirus relief bill, but Republicans disagreed with the amount, both for the benefits and for the overall pandemic response.
So Trump took executive action, inviting states to set up “lost wages assistance” programs that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay, using money that Congress previously appropriated for disasters.
In his announcement, the president said he was giving the unemployed an extra $400 per week, but it turns out the federal government is only offering $300. And because it’s technically disaster assistance rather than unemployment compensation, states have to figure out how to pay the benefits without imposing costs on their regular unemployment programs ― meaning it could be administratively difficult to do so.
Continue to article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lost-wages-assistance-program_n_5f3ad778c5b6e054c3fd89d5
