The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved grant funding to supply West Virginians who receive unemployment benefits with an additional $300 a week.
The additional $300 in federal money will apply retroactively to unemployment checks, beginning the week that ended Aug. 1. Any person who receives some unemployment benefits and at least $100 in weekly benefits will be eligible for the $300.
West Virginia will supply recipients with an additional $100 every month, which will be paid for with federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief Economic Security (CARES) Act funding. Any person who receives unemployment benefits, even if they do not meet the federal threshold for expansion money, will be eligible for West Virginia’s expansion.
Expanding unemployment will cost West Virginia about $26 million every week. The response COVID-19 has caused the state’s unemployment fund to be practically depleted. The state already is borrowing federal money to prop up its current liabilities.
“All of these people are going to be getting a nice check, and the faster we can get it to them, the better,” Gov. Jim Justice said during a news conference Monday.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said in a statement Congress should vote on a relief package rather than rely on FEMA funding to pay for unemployment benefits. He criticized the agency’s past failures.
“I’m hopeful that this funding will make it to the people that are struggling to make ends meet through no fault of their own,” Manchin said. “But make no mistake – in the middle of hurricane season that has already proven deadly and destructive, this funding is coming from the FEMA disaster relief fund. In West Virginia, FEMA has a terrible track record of getting aid to victims of the 2016 flood. We still have schools operating out of trailers and families awaiting FEMA assistance. Given their past performance, I am concerned FEMA is entirely unprepared to effectively execute this entirely new relief program with the speed and efficiency that our struggling families need and deserve.”
FEMA has set aside $44 billion for unemployment nationwide. When that money runs out, so will the weekly bonuses.
