N.M. won’t have to match money for federal jobless aid

President had called for $100 from states to qualify for $400 weekly benefits, but U.S. Department of Labor gives different guidance

New Mexico will not have to contribute funds for unemployment benefit enhancements in order for beneficiaries to receive an extra $300 a week in assistance from the federal government, the Department of Workforce solutions said Friday.

President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order calling for the payments after a congressional effort to renew pandemic-related aid of $600 a week for jobless workers stalled. The extra unemployment aid expired July 31.

The president called for $300 from the federal government’s Disaster Relief Fund and a $100 match from states for a $400 weekly payment. Many states, however, complained they did not have the money to spend an additional $100 per week for each unemployment claim.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday issued guidance saying states can “simply satisfy the 25 percent state match, without allocating additional state funds, with the state funding used to pay regular state [unemployment insurance] benefits.”

New Mexico pays between $88 and $461 per week in unemployment benefits. New Mexico Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley confirmed the state will not pay the additional $100.

There are 94,000 New Mexicans receiving state unemployment insurance benefits and nearly 45,000 self-employed workers on unemployment through a separate federal program.

The supplemental payments from the Disaster Relief Fund would be retroactive to Aug. 1. The president has authorized $44 billion for the payments. The payments will continue until Dec. 27 — or until the dedicated $44 billion is exhausted or the balance of the Disaster Relief Fund decreases to $25 billion.

The program also will end if Congress approves a new version of the federal program that provided the $600 payments.

No date has been set for when the $300 payments will start.

“That will depend on when any funding arrives and how long it will take our department to build a whole new program, with new rules and reporting requirements, from scratch,” McCamley said.