Frequently Asked Questions About Receiving Supplemental Payments for Lost Wages

Yes, the state, territory and the District of Columbia must contact an individual who is potentially eligible for supplemental lost wages assistance to allow him or her to submit a self-certification that his or her unemployment or partial unemployment is due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes all individuals who meet the $100 eligibility provision for weeks of unemployment ending on or after August 1, 2020. States, territories and the District of Columbia must describe their approach to these notifications in the State Administrative Plan required as part of their grant application.

Additionally, since supplemental lost wages assistance is retroactive, an individual who was previously unemployed or partially unemployed as a result of COVID-19, but now is employed may still be eligible for supplemental lost wages assistance for the period after August 1, 2020 until he or she regained employment. Since these individuals are no longer filing for unemployment benefits, the state, territory and the District of Columbia must reach out to the individuals about his or her potential eligibility for supplemental lost wages assistance. The state/territory may use administrative costs awarded for conducting this outreach.

There is no required mechanism to notify potentially eligible individuals. States, territories and the District of Columbia, however, are strongly encouraged to provide easy-to-understand information regarding supplemental lost wages assistance, including:

• The steps individuals must take to satisfy the self-certification requirement, and
• That it is important for individuals to respond immediately.

Presidential Memorandum

No, FEMA has determined that the language used in the State Administrative Plan and Award Letter do not conflict. The supplemental lost wages benefits-eligible claimant definition aligns with the supplemental assistance provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and with the President’s direction to provide supplemental lost wages payments to eligible individuals who are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19. 

Presidential Memorandum

This eligibility provision is determined at the individual level based on the individual’s weekly benefit amount. An individual is determined to have received at least $100 per week for purposes of being an “eligible claimant” if the individual’s WBA as provided on the monetary determination is at least $100 (including any dependents’ allowance). In addition, the week in question must be considered compensable.

In an effort to help ease the financial burden on those who are unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum on August 8, 2020 authorizing FEMA to use the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (“Stafford Act”) disaster relief funds to provide supplemental payments for lost wages.

An individual is eligible for LWA if they have completed the self-certification, are monetarily eligible for at least a $100 weekly benefit amount (WBA), and they are not otherwise disqualified or denied. We consider a week that is not subject to disqualification or denial to be compensable even if the amount is reduced to $0. We defer to state law if it contains a provision that allows the state to interpret a week that is reduced to $0 as non-compensable.

An individual does not need to certify each week that he or she is “unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.” The individual instead must certify once per claim:

• If the individual qualified for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, he or she is presumed to have met the self-certification requirements.
• If the individual already self-certified that he or she is unemployment or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19, he or she already meet the self-certification requirements even if this certification was prior to August 1, 2020.
• For individuals with new or reopened/additional unemployment claims, the self-certification can generally be done at the time of the claim filing. States, territories and the District of Columbia with procedures that ask claimants if their separation is due to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their initial application will meet this requirement.
• For individuals with an existing unemployment claim, who have not provided a self-certification due to disruptions caused by COVID-19, will need to provide a one-time special certification as of the supplemental lost wages assistance program start date.

Individuals (“claimants”) currently eligible for at least $100 per week in UI compensation from the week of August 1, 2020 from any of the below listed programs may receive supplemental lost wages payments from their state, territory and the District of Columbia.

• Unemployment compensation, including regular State Unemployment Compensation, Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Service members (UCX)
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)
• Extended Benefits (EB)
• Short-Time Compensation (STC)
• Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA)
• Payments under the Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) program

Individuals are required to self-certify through established state, territory and the District of Columbia unemployment insurance procedures that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the initial unemployment insurance claims process. Claimants who previously self-certified that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19 will not need to recertify again.

A claimant’s eligibility for lost wages assistance should be based off of the WBA for the work share entitlement. STC weekly benefit amounts are defined by the Department of Labor as a proportion of the unemployment compensation weekly benefit amount payable for a week of total unemployment equivalent to the proportion of the workweek that had been reduced. As such, for purposes of the example, the individual’s WBA is $72, and they would not qualify for supplemental lost wages assistance benefits. Per the Presidential Memorandum, individuals (claimants) are eligible if they are receiving at least $100 per week in unemployment insurance compensation.

Presidential Memorandum

The supplemental lost wages assistance program must terminate immediately if legislation providing supplementary unemployment benefits (e.g., an extension to the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program) is enacted. The question of funds being recollected cannot be answered without knowing what any new enacted legislation includes.

State, territory and the District of Columbia unemployment agencies will be issuing lost wages payments on behalf of the state/territory. The funds will be disbursed throughthe disbursement platform utilized by Department of Labor and Treasury for unemployment insurance programs. FEMA intends to issue both grant funding assistance and authorized reasonable administrative costs through this platform.