Trump’s weekly $300 boost coming to jobless this month

Tens of thousands of jobless Nevadans are out of patience and out of money as they wait for the $300 a week to come from the federal Lost Wages Assistance program.

“I’m budgeting to the penny, clipping coupons at the grocery store,” said Michael Finn, a former Wynn Las Vegas production manager who was furloughed in July. “This program was made available in August, and it’s now October, and if we see anything this month, it’d be amazing. That 300 bucks a week makes the difference between groceries and paying rent or not. ”

Nevada was awarded more than $423 million in federal funds to pay eligible filers $300 a week for six weeks, though the state hasn’t yet rolled out software to accommodate the program.

The state Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation said it expects to make LWA payments in mid- to late October.

“We are still on track to start making LWA payments four to six weeks from the time we were approved (by the Federal Emergency Management Agency),” DETR spokeswoman Rosa Mendez said in a statement to the Review-Journal.

Not everyone will be eligible for the program, as it depends on what programs are being used to pay existing jobless benefits.

Six weeks of LWA

After Finn was furloughed, he applied in late July for state unemployment insurance and has been receiving $483 per week since.

He never received the additional weekly $600 federal payment through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which ceased at the end of July and was part of the $2 trillion federal coronavirus relief package. The LWA program was created as a stopgap measure until Congress agrees on another relief package.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early August that diverted $44 billion in disaster relief funds from FEMA to state unemployment agencies. Those funds initially guaranteed states $300 a week to unemployed individuals for three weeks.

Gov. Steve Sisolak gave the employment agency the green light to apply for the LWA program on Aug. 25, and DETR applied for it about a week after, making Nevada the last state to apply.

FEMA said in September that it will offer an additional three weeks of pay, and Nevada applied again for funding.

Mendez said the agency plans to pay claims for Unemployment Insurance and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, jobless pay for independent contractors and self-employed workers one week at a time “to be sure we stay within our grant amount. Because the grant is a fixed amount, we will pay as many people as many weeks as we can.”

Waiting

Nearly seven months into the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 267,00 Nevadans are receiving jobless pay as of the last week of September, state data shows.

Finn said he is feeling anxious as he waits for the LWA funds and is frustrated by DETR’s silence.

“There’s nothing searchable on their website and there’s nothing posted on any updates beyond the press release that said they applied and were approved. There’s no assurances, no announcement,” he said. “Without LWA funds, I’m going to have to start deferring and make payment arrangements.”

Sherry Ables, an independent contractor who was laid off because of the pandemic, said she gets about $130 a week in state unemployment benefits and is also waiting to file for LWA.

“It is literally destroying lives, daily, right here in our valley. People are hungry, scared, depressed,” said Ables, who is part of a Facebook group for unemployed Nevada independent contractors and self-employed workers. “They’re counting on PUA and LWA for basic survival, and they’re still waiting.”

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.