NY request for additional $300 unemployment benefits is denied
Updated: Oct. 22, 2020, 1:46 p.m. | Published: Oct. 22, 2020, 10:52 a.m.
FILE - In this June 11, 2020 file photo, pedestrians pass an office location for the New York State Department of Labor in the Queens borough of New York.AP
By Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com
New York state's request for additional $300 unemployment benefits has been denied, according to a new report.
Peter Brancato, a spokesman for the state Labor Department, tells the Democrat & Chronicle that the federal government turned down an application for $300-a-week payments through the federal Lost Wages Assistance Program to help unemployed New Yorkers during the coronavirus pandemic.
"FEMA has denied New York's request for additional weeks of LWA funding beyond the six weeks that have already been distributed — highlighting one of the many shortcomings of this slapdash Federal program," Brancato said. "Across New York and around the country, families are still reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the continued failure by the Trump Administration and Senate Republicans to negotiate a comprehensive relief bill is as illogical as it is harmful."
A bill providing additional relief, including a possible second round of stimulus checks in direct payments worth up to $1,200, has stalled in Congress after first being passed by the House in May -- five months ago. The U.S. gave out an extra $600 per week for anyone receiving unemployment benefits for the first four months of the pandemic, but the federal program ended in July.
More than 2 million New York state residents got a little relief through FEMA's lost wages program for six weeks, getting an extra $300 a week from Aug. 2 to Sept. 6 on top of the $504 a week the state provides in unemployment benefits.
But now no additional federal assistance is coming until after the election, and how much remains uncertain. The Associated Press reports Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke again Wednesday about a new relief bill, but indicated no real progress.