Arizonans who lost jobs due to virus will get extra $300 a week
PHOENIX — Unemployed Arizonans who were expecting to receive an additional $400 a week under an executive order President Donald Trump signed last weekend will only receive $300 extra, Gov. Doug Ducey’s office announced Friday.
The $400 payment Trump announced to boost payments because of the coronavirus included a 25% state match. Arizona is among a large number of states that have opted out of that cash match because of budget concerns. The government issued rules this week after pressure from states to allow them to count regular state unemployment payments toward the match.
That means the $100 Arizona match will come out of the state’s $240 per week unemployment benefit, so benefits paid to recipients will hit a maximum $540 per week, Ducey spokesman Patrick Ptak said. If FEMA approves Arizona’s plan, benefit checks could flow as soon as Sunday, and include two weeks of retroactive payments to the first week in August.
Ptak said it’s important to keep the state’s unemployment trust fund solvent, so using that fund to boost benefits isn’t wise.
“We know we have to be responsible and prudent with these dollars,” he said. “We want to make sure that Arizonans can continue to receive unemployment later this year.”
The trust held about $1.1 billion at the end of February, and it now has about $590 million.
The president acted after Congress failed to agree on an extension of a temporary $600-per-week payment that expired at the end of July.
Under that program that began in early April, people in Arizona who lost jobs got a total of $840 a week. Arizona’s regular unemployment benefit is the 2nd lowest in the nation and well below that of neighboring states.
More than 370,000 Arizonans are currently receiving unemployment benefits, up from about 17,500 before the pandemic hit in March and Ducey began ordering businesses to close to contain the spread of the virus. The $600 supplemental payments have helped many stay afloat, along with the businesses they patronize.
The state is seeing major improvements in virus numbers. Arizona health officials on Friday reported 928 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 40 additional deaths, increasing the state’s totals to 191,721 confirmed cases with 4,423 deaths.
Hospitalizations peaked about a month ago. The latest COVID-19-related hospitalization metrics posted by the Department of Health Services continued to trend down and were at mid-June levels.
According to Johns Hopkins University data analyzed by The Associated Press, seven-day rolling averages of daily new cases in Arizona and of daily deaths in the state both sharply declined over the past two weeks.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested. Studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.