Idaho unemployed to get retroactive payments with Trump plan
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho will start making $300-a-week unemployment payments this week under President Donald Trump’s supplemental plan, Gov. Brad Little said Tuesday.
The retroactive payments will cover five weeks beginning in late July and ending Aug. 29. That means those eligible could receive several weeks of payments at once.
The Republican governor said he’s also looking to tap $15 million in federal coronavirus relief money to make sure the supplemental program applies to those currently receiving less than $100 per week in state unemployment benefits who would otherwise be left out of the $300 federal supplement.
The state’s minimum unemployment benefit amount is $72, and the maximum benefit amount is $448.
Trump’s executive order creating the program in early August takes $44 billion from a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief fund and offers states additional unemployment payments using that money. Idaho received enough money to cover five weeks.
States are required to chip in $100 per claimant to be able to send out the $300 in federal money. The governor’s Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee is meeting Thursday to consider approving the $15 million that is being requested by the state Department of Labor to make sure the $300 federal supplement goes out to more people.
The unemployment rate is 5%, with about 45,000 residents are looking for work.
“Idaho’s economy is open, and most Idahoans have returned to work safely,” Little said in a statement. “However, the number of available jobs reported in Idaho is still lower than the number of unemployed Idahoans. President Trump’s new conservative plan ensures struggling American families can continue to pay their mortgages and avoid debt, which helps stabilize consumer spending and prevent a deeper recession.”
More than 20 states have opted to take the federal grants allowing them to increase unemployment checks under the president’s stripped-down benefit plan.
People who were out of work got an extra federally funded $600 a week, largely because the abrupt recession caused by the coronavirus made finding another job so difficult. That boost expired at the end of July and has not been extended by Congress.
Johns Hopkins University reports that through Monday, the state had more than 32,000 coronavirus infections and 361 deaths.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and those with existing health problems, it can cause more severe or fatal illness.