First batch of payments sent out
Among the early states to apply for funds, Colorado has received $ 553M to cover six weeks
After a week dogged by tech glitches, Colorado’s unemployment officials sent the first batch of Lost Wages Assistance program payments Thursday.
By the end of September, hundreds of thousands of people should receive the longawaited unemployment boost, officials said.
The program, abbreviated LWA, was established by President Donald Trump last month using money from the federal Disaster Relief Fund. It provides people with $ 300 per week in extra support for the six weeks stretching from July 26 through Sept. 5, according to state officials, a period picking up where the now- expired $ 600per- week federal boost left off.
Colorado was among the first states to apply for funding and has received $ 553 million to cover the six- week window, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment officials said Friday.
Thursday’s night’s payment approval covered 28,000 people, according to the labor department. Payments for at least an additional 94,000 will be sent to unemployed people’s banks and financial institutions Friday, although that money may not show up in accounts until Monday or later, labor officials say.
Payment processing can take up to three business days depending on recipients’ collection methods and banks. The payments will come out in two installments of up to $ 900 each. They are being broken into two portions because money is distributed on a first- come, first- served basis. With as many as 350,000 Coloradans eligible, the state wants to “ensure that we have the greatest equity in distribution of these benefits and the greatest number of people can benefit from the program,” labor department deputy executive director Cher Haavind said Friday.
LWA requires people certify they lost their jobs because of the COVID- 19 pandemic to receive money.
People on the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program don’t need to take additional steps to do that, but those on Colorado’s state unemployment benefits do. About 68,000 Coloradans on the PUA program will receive Lost Wages payments.
It was the certification process, run through the state’s automated virtual agent program, that bogged down this week.
After notifying 220,000 people of the eligibility Monday, the system began to glitch and stop people from completing the process.
“As we experienced early on in the pandemic when folks were trying to apply for benefits, the system was overwhelmed and struggled to meet the demand for certifications,” Haavind said.
The system was shut down Wednesday. By Thursday morning, state information technology staff members and partners were “able to deploy a more stable solution,” Haavind said, and an additional 34,000 people certified before 10 a. m. Friday.
People who certified this week do not need to do so again now that the tech issues appear to be fixed, officials said. People who scheduled callback appointments with unemployment office staffers after running into the certification glitches will be triaged and contacted separately outside of the standard callback queue.
Applicants must submit their Social Security number and ZIP code to certify. If a person has moved since first filing for unemployment, they must use the ZIP code for their address when they first filed.
People must be eligible for at least $ 100 per week in unemployment claims to qualify for the program. The state plans to process LWA payments six days a week until the money is gone.
There is not a firm date for when that might be, but state unemployment director Jeff Fitzgerald said “if claimants are timely in their certification then our goal is to see that both installments of the payments are made in advance of the 30th of the month.”