WASHINGTON — New York State has been approved for funding to give unemployed people an additional $300 on top of their unemployment benefits.

FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor approved New York for a FEMA grant under the Lost Wages Assistance program.

The grant funding will allow New York to provide additional unemployment due to COVID-19.

FEMA will work with New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to implement a system to make this funding available to New York residents.

On August 8, President Trump made available up to $44 billion from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to Americans who have lost wages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of New York agreed to administer a lost wages program for its citizens who are unemployed due to COVID-19.

Also, Pennsylvania will get nearly $1.5 billion to provide an extra $300 per week to eligible unemployed workers.

To qualify for the extra $300, the program requires that eligible individuals must receive at least $100 per week in benefits from:

• Regular Unemployment Compensation (UC);
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC);
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA);
• Extended Benefits (EB);
• Short-Time Compensation (STC) or Shared Work; and
• Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA).
• Individuals must also self-certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.

Payments will be made to eligible claimants retroactively from August 1.