NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Tennessee will provide an additional $300 per week in federal assistance to people who are unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it has approved Tennessee’s request for a grant to give to people on top of their regular unemployment benefits. The Lost Wage Assistance (LWA) grants have been awarded to nearly half of the states.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month making the money available. It was announced as a $400-per-week benefit, but put the burden on the states to pay $100 a week of that amount. The U.S. Department of Labor issued recent guidance saying states would not have to contribute that money.
Trump’s order came after a $600-per-week federal unemployment benefit expired at the end of July, without a new bill for pandemic relief being reached.
“Unlike the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program (FPUC) that ended in July,” a statement by the Tennessee Labor and Workforce Development explained, “LWA is a grant with a finite amount of funding. When the federal program exhausts its grant funding, it will no longer have the resources to provide LWA payments and the program will end at that time. If the federal program does not exhaust the LWA grant funding, payments will end in Tennessee on December 26, 2020.”
The state agency added it has begun working to build the capability within the unemployment computer system to implement and pay the new benefit.
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Christina Botteri contributed to this Associated Press report.
The well ran dry a long time ago. It is way past time to stop the shutdown and let people get back to work. I am sorry for those who cannot work but providing overly large unemployment payments is unwise.