Millions of Californians who are out of work during the pandemic will soon receive a $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit until August 1, state officials said Thursday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved California’s $ 4.5 billion application to cover at least three weeks of additional benefits after a $ 600 weekly payment expired last month.
The California Department of Employment Development will begin processing eligible payments and sending payments during the week of Sept. 7, bureau officials said Thursday.
“These benefits are critical to the basic security of families and communities and to our economy, which has been so devastated by the virus and its financial consequences,” California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su said in a statement. “As we modernize and strengthen the unemployment insurance delivery system, we will continue to use additional resources made available by the federal government.”
The $ 300 payment will be available to Californians who are currently eligible to receive at least $ 100 in weekly unemployment benefits and have been certified unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruption caused by COVID-19, according to the State Department of Employment Development.
While Congress has deadlocked over a proposal to expand the previous $ 600 benefit, President Trump signed an executive order on August 8 that allocated $ 44 billion in existing federal emergency funds to states to provide $ 300 a week.
California was the 18thth able to win FEMA approval to participate in the program. It was set to possibly run through December 27, but only the first three weeks have been allocated, with future weeks depending on the availability of federal funds.
The amount of payments and the possibility that funds can go up after three weeks are attorneys for tenants, including George A. Warner, an attorney with the Legal Aid At Work group in San Francisco.
“The Trump administration ‘lost wage assistance, which is not the same as unemployment insurance, is leaving California and the American people in the lurch,” Warner said, calling $ 300 a week “unsustainable for unemployed families, given the devastating COVID’s impact on the labor market. “
He said the requirement that unemployed people qualify for $ 100 or more in weekly benefits leaves most people in need of help.
“These half measures are detrimental to working families, the economy of our state and our communities. The program does not meet the gravity of this moment, ‘Warner said.
He added that because the program is only guaranteed for three weeks, “it will take states far too much time, money and resources to simultaneously implement that they are already dealing with a unique number of applications.”
State officials initially said their old-fashioned computer system would take up to 20 weeks to be reprogrammed to handle the new federal allocation, but the program was simplified by Washington.
Originally, federal officials talked about a formula in which states would match the $ 300 with $ 100 in state funds, but that requirement was relaxed to add existing unemployment to the contest.
Still, there is concern that low-income residents who need the most financial assistance will be left out of the supplementary benefit program, as recipients are required to receive $ 100 a week in unemployment.
The announcement that claims will be processed early in the week of Sept. 7 came a few days after state members renewed criticism of the EDD during a public hearing on ongoing issues that left hundreds of thousands of unemployed Californians without benefits.
Members of Congress including Democrat Adrin Nazarian of Los Angeles said during a hearing Monday that the bureau had previously experienced the same problems and he was disappointed that the problems were not resolved.
“We were extremely poorly prepared,” Nazarian told EDD Director Sharon Hilliard at a Capitol hearing of a subcommittee on budgeting at the meeting on administration.
Hilliard told lawmakers that technological improvements have allowed the department to pay out billions of dollars in benefits, but she acknowledged that more needs to be done.
“It’s not acceptable,” Hilliard said of the current situation. “What we have been able to achieve is quite incredible, but it is not good enough.”
