Connecticut Department of Labor Commissioner Kurt Westby said that the state has been approved for extra supplemental benefits, meaning an additional $300 per week in the pockets of qualifying workers who lost their jobs as a result of Covid-19.
The Lost Wages Assistance supplemental benefits is a new federal program funded by $44 billion in disaster relief that was authorized last month. It replaces the $600-a-week emergency federal supplement that expired July 31. Disbursal of the new funds will begin next week.
To qualify, claimants must have received at least $100 per week, including the dependency allowance, of any of the following benefits for the week they are seeking unemployment benefits:
- Claimants receiving unemployment compensation, including state and federal workers and former service members, as well as those receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Extended Benefits, or High Extended Benefits;
- Claimants who are part of the Shared Work Program; and
- Workers with a Trade Readjustment Allowance.
“This program will be a significant help to a lot of Connecticut residents who need assistance,” Westby said. “With five weeks of benefits available, Lost Wages Assistance can take some financial pressure off claimants, but it is only a temporary program and expires when the FEMA funding is exhausted. I join Governor Lamont and our congressional delegation in urging a more permanent solution for the workforce, which is still reeling from COVID-19.”
Existing PUA claimants have already self-certified and do not need to do anything to receive the additional benefit.
New unemployment claimants and existing state and extended benefits claimants who are required to self-certify are notified by letter or email that they are eligible and may self-certify when the program is open.
The Labor Department is testing self-certification and opening the program to small groups of people over the course of the next few days. Payments will be disbursed in mid-September when the self-certification testing is complete and widely available to all.
To self-certify:
- Claimants log into their unemployment account, where the account main page offers a new option in the menu “Certify for Lost Wages Assistance.”
- Once a claimant has clicked on the button, a new screen will ask them to certify that their unemployment or underemployment is due to COVID-19.
- The claimant then confirms their submission and has completed the process.
A total of five weeks of Lost Wages Assistance will be paid in addition to regular unemployment weekly benefits and will be retroactive to the claim week beginning July 26. It will also be available for claim weeks beginning Aug. 2, 9, 16, and 23.
Claimants will receive the supplemental benefit in several payments; the first payment of $300 will be issued mid-September, with the remainder of retroactive payments following in two or three separate payments.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will terminate the program once available federal funding is exhausted or if the U.S. government passes legislation that replaces the program. The program is expected to provide $375 million in additional unemployment benefits to Connecticut claimants.
The state Labor Department estimates that about 250,000 people will be eligible for the funding.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Social Services will provide over $16.5 million in Emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) Benefits to nearly half of Connecticut”™s SNAP participants on Sept. 17, adding to the $100.6 million in emergency benefits disbursed in April, May, June, July, and August.
Authorized by the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020, the extra food benefits will go to nearly 109,600 households that are not currently receiving the maximum benefits allowed for their household size. That means that all households enrolled in SNAP will receive the maximum food benefit allowable for their household size, even if they are not usually eligible for the maximum benefit.
Specifically:
- The Department of Social Services reports that nearly 109,600 of 222,119 SNAP-participating households statewide will receive the emergency benefits in September.
- With this additional $16.5 million allocation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture”™s Food and Nutrition Service, emergency benefits are totaling over $117.4 million in additional SNAP assistance statewide during April, May, June, July, August, and September with commensurate spending in the food economy.
- The average emergency benefit amount a household will see in its electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card on September 17 is $153.
- All participating households also received their normal SNAP benefits on the first three days of each month as they normally do, according to last name.
Emergency benefits allowed the household”™s SNAP benefit to increase to the maximum allotment for a household of that size as follows:
| Household size | Maximum benefit amount |
| 1 | $194 |
| 2 | $355 |
| 3 | $509 |
| 4 | $646 |
| 5 | $768 |
| 6 | $921 |
| 7 | $1,018 |
| 8 | $1,164 |
Each additional person: add $146.
