Nevada workforce agency starts paying next round of jobless benefits
Nevada’s workforce agency said it has started paying the next round of federal $300-a-week benefits for jobless Nevadans this week.
The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said this week that it has started paying Week 5 of the Lost Wages Assistance program. 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.
The process of disbursing funds is expected to last up to 10 days. “It is important to note that payments to claimants are not made all at once, but in batches,” said DETR spokeswoman Rosa Mendez in a statement.
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 the state 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 at the time that the funding will last only four or five weeks.
DETR previously said it would provide details on the amount of funding left beyond the initial three weeks. The agency did not answer questions about how much LWA funding remained after Week 4.
Mendez said that once payments for Week 5 are completed, DETR will see if there’s enough money left in the program “which will determine if we can pay the final week of LWA.”
Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.
