Alabamians getting COVID-19 unemployment to get $300 per week supplement

Aug. 27--The owner of PoBoys' Deli said the relief package that added $600 per week to unemployment benefits through July 31 for those who lost jobs due to COVID-19 issues made it impossible to get enough workers, but she's not sure whether the recently implemented $300 supplement will do the same.

"The next week after (the $600 additional benefits) ended, we were able to hire four new people," Crystal Owens said of her Decatur restaurant. Since then, she's hired more workers and the staff has grown from three, including herself, to a full staff of eight, allowing Owens to resume pre-pandemic hours and open on Sunday again.

"I understand the challenges," Owens said, but "we couldn't compete with the increased benefits. Our small businesses really need the workforce."

For now, she's uncertain how the latest benefit program will impact her business and others.

Alabamians who are jobless due to the COVID-19 pandemic will receive an extra $300 a week in addition to their regular unemployment benefits under a federal financial assistance program, according to officials.

That means Alabamians who qualify can receive up to $575 per week in unemployment benefits, but a state official said the unemployment insurance fund will run out of money in about a month if the current rate of payments continues.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor said Alabama was approved for a FEMA grant under the Lost Wages Assistance program, which will allow Alabama to provide the $300 supplement to those unemployed due to the pandemic.

"FEMA will work with Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to implement a system to make this funding available to Alabama residents," Gaynor said last week in a news release.

A state official said the payments will not begin immediately.

"We are waiting to receive the funds," Alabama Department of Labor spokeswoman Tara Hutchison said earlier this week. "We anticipate (payments) going out within two weeks, possibly sooner."

She said the maximum benefit amount is now $275 a week. Ivey and Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington announced last week the state would apply to participate in the Lost Wages Assistance program, which was created by President Donald Trump earlier this month after the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) $600 weekly benefit expired.

Alabama Arise spokesman Chris Sanders called on Congress to step up and extend federal funding for the $600 weekly benefit increase into next year.

The $300 increase is "only a stopgap" measure, he said. "The money is only going to last for a few weeks (but) the need is not going to go away."

For the week ending Aug. 22, the number of claimants paid statewide was 156,012, according to state Labor Department figures. No breakdown was available for the total amount for each county. The number of claimants paid was 10,702 for the week ending March 14 and 11,769 for the week ending Aug. 24, 2019.

State labor data shows that benefits paid from March 16 through Aug. 19 reached about $3.1 billion. Of that, nearly $2.2 billion was for the FPUC program.

To be eligible for the $300 benefit, recipients must already receive at least $100 in unemployment compensation.

"They won't have to re-apply," Hutchison said, but may have to certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed "due to pandemic-related reasons."

Payments would be retroactive to Aug. 1, according to the state Department of Labor.

Earlier this month, Trump authorized FEMA to spend up to $44 billion from its disaster relief fund for lost wage payments due to the pandemic.

It's unclear how long the extra money will be paid.

Guidance from FEMA and the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that states should be able to receive about three weeks' worth of benefits, with additional pay being granted on a weekly basis, depending on the remaining balance of the fund, according to the state Department of Labor.

Hutchison said the amount of benefits paid fluctuates from week to week.

Statewide, "usually $15 million to $25 million is paid out every week," she said. "We paid out over $48 million last week. It looks like there were a lot of back-payments made."

Hutchison said the state's unemployment insurance trust fund had $174 million as of Friday, compared to "$750 million pre-pandemic."

The unemployment insurance fund has "maybe a month or so" of benefits left at the current rate of payments statewide, according to Hutchison. Money in the fund comes from state unemployment taxes paid by employers.

"We're close to having to borrow" from the federal government, she said.

-- marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.

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