Second round of Lost Wages Assistance to begin next week
The next round of federal $300-a-week benefits for jobless Nevadans is scheduled to start hitting bank accounts next week.
The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said it finished paying the first round of the Lost Wages Assistance program to eligible claimants Thursday. The federally funded program provides an extra $300 a week to Nevada residents who receive at least $100 a week in benefits from unemployment insurance or the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Rosa Mendez, the agency spokeswoman, told the Review-Journal that second-round payments will be sent one week at a time.
“We are planning to start the release of week four’s payment next week,” Mendez said. “If it rolls out as round one did, we expect it to take up to 10 days. Once that is complete, we will be sure we have enough money left in the grant, and then we’ll OK paying Week 5.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in early August that created the LWA program with $44 billion in diverted disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those funds guaranteed states $300 a week to unemployed individuals for three weeks. FEMA later said it will offer an additional three weeks of pay, and Nevada applied again for funding.
Nevada asked for and received approval of $224 million to cover three weeks in early September, but Nevada was approved for only an additional $199 million for the other three weeks.
The agency intended to provide payments to eligible jobless claimants for six weeks retroactive to Aug. 1, but it said the funding will last only four or five weeks.
Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.
