Unemployed Michiganders now eligible for additional $300 per week

Pandemic unemployment assistance benefits, which afforded $600 in supplemental aid to eligible individuals through much of the COVID-19 crisis, ceased on July 31, 2020. Congress failed to reach a consensus on an extension, so, on August 8, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to “provide financial assistance for the needs of those who have lost employment as a result of the pandemic.”

How Michigan funding will work

To secure the funds, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) submitted an application to FEMA on August 18, and it was approved three days later. Many implications of the approval, though, remain unclear.

Individuals who are eligible for at least $100 in unemployment compensation benefits will receive an additional $300 per week, retroactive to August 1, 2020, and prospective to an indeterminate date. They need not take any additional actions to receive the weekly $300 benefit, and UIA director Steve Gray notes, “Our goal now is to work as quickly as possible to implement this new program to get people the benefits they need.”

Despite no delineated end date for the funding, the $44 million allocated for FEMA’s disbursement may exhaust as early as sometime in September, prompting Governor Whitmer’s warning: “[I]t’s still a short-term Band-Aid that falls short of what’s needed.” Whether the federal agency’s funds will support long-term assistance to unemployed individuals and provide more than just temporary relief remains unknown.