Minnesota Applies for Extra $300 in Federal Weekly Unemployment Benefits

ST. PAUL, Minn.– Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that the state has applied for federal help to get an extra boost to those out of work during the pandemic.

The state applied for FEMA’s lost wages assistance program that would give an additional $300 per week to those on unemployment due to COVID-19. Applicants can get payments starting with the last week of July to around the middle of September. Funding could be approved by FEMA as soon as September 6.

“It’s been a really difficult time and over 900,000 Minnesotans have applied for unemployment insurance so far, most of them never applied for this program in their entire lives and never expected that they would,” said DEED Commissioner Steve Grove.

Those already on unemployment won’t need to do any additional steps. More information is available at https://www.uimn.org/lwa.