Mississippi has been approved for a FEMA grant under the Lost Wages Assistance Program. Residents who received unemployment benefits of more than 100 dollars during the first three weeks of August will soon be receiving an additional 300 dollars per week. Jackie Turner is Executive Director for the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.
"All the programs that we are currently running, our regular unemployment, and some of the CARES Act programs qualify for this," says Turner. "The exception to this is the disaster unemployment assistance program, which we currently have a couple in Mississippi because of tornados and floods, they are not eligible."
Turner says around 80 percent of people receiving benefits will qualify, and the funding will help stimulate Mississippi's economy where CARES act funds ended in late July. She says for those who qualify, no additional paperwork is needed to receive payment. "We have those records in our system, we know who received benefits under that criteria for those weeks, August 1, 8, 15, 22 so far, and those people that meet that criteria will receive the payment once we begin making those payments soon."
The program is set to expire at the end of December, but funds could run out sooner because they're being pulled from a limited FEMA budget. Turner says it's up to Congress to extend the federal pandemic unemployment funds. "So as of now, MDES is applying week by week," says Turner. "We're getting it programmed as quickly as possible, and we'll begin making those payments within a week and a half."
Job search requirements are now back in place to qualify for unemployment benefits, which experts say will help prepare the workforce when the federal relief money runs out.
