Colorado approved for extra $300 unemployment payments – but only for 3 weeks so far

Colorado has been approved to tap into federal money to pay an extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved Colorado for payments through the newly launched Lost Wages Assistance program Wednesday, according to a news release from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

The initial approval, however, only covers the three-week period from July 26 through Aug. 15. The application window is open until Sept. 10 and FEMA is waiting to see how many other states request money before approving further weeks, state officials say. Colorado is one of eight states to apply for the program thus far.

“The Department will communicate to claimants should Colorado be approved for additional weeks of (Lost Wages Assistance) benefits,” Wednesday’s press release reads. Later on in the release, officials add, “we may not know for some time.”

Now comes the potentially lengthy process of updating state systems to get those payments out to people in need. State officials said in Wednesday’s release that reprogramming has begun and they are hopeful unemployment recipients will start getting payments for past weeks in mid-September.

Once activated, it will provide $300 per week in unemployment payments to any worker who has lost hours and wages as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic so long as they are receiving at least $100 a week from any state or federal unemployment fund. Eligible recipients will not have to do anything to their claims. The state will automatically pay eligible recipients.

It is not clear yet how much money will ultimately be provided to Colorado but state officials hope this is just the first pot of money. The program has access to up to $44 billion in FEMA Disaster Relief Fund dollars to fund unemployment systems nationwide.

“This additional benefit of $300 per week will put at least $265 million into the hands of our unemployed workforce who have been impacted by the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, and provides critical support during this time of extreme need,” Joe Barela, the state labor department’s executive director, said in a news release Wednesday.

President Donald Trump created the Lost Wages Assistance program via an executive order earlier this month. It at first caused heartburn in cash-strapped Colorado because of an early caveat, since resolved, that the state would have to come up with $100 per week to draw down the federal money.

Like much of the response to the novel coronavirus crisis, reaction to the new program has been divided on partisan lines.

Asked about it Monday while visiting the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado’s Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said he was “very excited” after Colorado’s application was accepted over the weekend ahead of its final approval on Wednesday.

“So, we will have the dollars going to extended unemployment benefits for Colorado. It was one of the first states to be approved,” he said.

“We have to do more and more every minute,” Gardner said of supporting people who are unemployed right now.

Michael Bennet, Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Senator, meanwhile, called the program a “half-measure” that is “woefully insufficient” to address the needs of unemployed workers during the pandemic, in an emailed statement Wednesday.

“Calling this a Band-Aid on a bullet wound would be a massive understatement,” Bennet wrote.

Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have refused to work with Democrats on a stronger subsidy, Bennet said, including a bill he drafted alongside Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed. He believed the Senate, which went on recess last week, should be in Washington, D.C., right now working on a bi-partisan relief bill.

The LWA program comes on the heels of the expiration of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program launched by the massive CARES Act stimulus bill. That paid UI recipients $600 per week in extra benefits before expiring in Colorado on July 25. More than 560,000 Coloradans received payments through that program, state labor officials say. The state’s unemployment office processed more than $2.4 billion in those payments.

As of Aug. 8, more than 694,000 Coloradans had applied for unemployment benefits since mid March.

The average payment from the state’s unemployment fund since the pandemic began is around $360 per week, officials said.

About 28,000 recipients in the state collect less than $100 per week in benefits and will be excluded from receiving LWA payments.

“These could include individuals who had a mixed-income between 1099 work and W-2 work and were required to file for regular state benefits, individuals who were not employed during the entire duration of the base period, individuals who perform very part-time or on-call work, and individuals with low taxable incomes,” Cher Haavind, deputy executive director of the Colorado department of labor wrote in an email.

A spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis said the administration is “analyzing the feasibility of providing additional benefits using state funds.”

Denver Post staff writer Justin Wingerter contributed to this report.