The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation announced in October the rollout of the Lost Wages Program funded by FEMA, which provided grants to participating states to offer additional temporary benefits to certain individuals receiving unemployment benefits.
“The department has been working as quickly as possible to make this program available to Nevadans. Although LWA funding is limited to a set amount, our objective is to ensure payments are made to eligible claimants for as many weeks as the funding will allow,” DETR Acting Director Elisa Cafferata said.
DETR began the rollout with a small test run of payments after intensive work to establish the programming necessary to run the program since it was announced by the federal government last month. The testing proved successful, and initial payments in the PUA system began last night. It is important to note that while PUA payments are being deposited, claimants are not yet able to see those payments when they log into their claim on the PUA system.
Payments in the UI system will be made in batches and are expected to be completed over the next several days.
As established under federal requirements, eligibility for LWA is tied to certain weeks of eligibility. Claimants who were eligible for either unemployment insurance benefits or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits for the week of Aug. 1 will receive $300 for that week. Those eligible for unemployment for weeks ending Aug. 8 and Aug. 15 will receive $300 a week for those weeks as well.
Claimants eligible for all three weeks will receive a lump sum of $900. Federal law does not provide benefits under this program to claimants in the UI system who receive less than $100 a week in benefits. It is important to note that payments will go out to only those claimants who indicated their claim was filed as a result of COVID. Claimants who are determined ineligible for UI or PUA unemployment benefits during any of the weeks would not be eligible for LWA.
For weeks following the first three, DETR was awarded a lump sum grant amount which is likely to cover only one or two additional weeks of benefits for qualified claimants. These payments will be sent one week at a time beginning the last week of October. DETR will be providing updates on the exact time and amount of funding which will be released beyond the three weeks.
Eligible claimants do not need to apply for this funding; it will be placed in your account or usual payment mechanism.
Claimants still in the backlog will be eligible to receive the funding if their claim is approved.
Claimants who received benefits in the LWA weeks and have since returned to work do not need to reactivate their claims.