While speaking Wednesday night about Hurricane Laura and its impending collision with the Gulf Coast near the border of the Louisiana and Texas, Governor John Bel Edwards spoke about the efforts to get work force assistance into the hands of the unemployed:
“Today, the Louisiana Workforce Commission was able to process nearly $240,000,000 in lost wage assistance, to nearly 300,000 workers. And this is the federal enhanced benefit that is actually being paid out of FEMA dollars from the disaster relief fund.”
Governor Edwards says the state had to reprogram the system to make it work, as the federal government would not allow the money to drawn out of the state’s unemployment trust fund.
Edwards says Louisiana is among just three states to get the money distributed so quickly.
“What we did today was 85% of all the pending payments,” Edwards said. “And these payments are retroactive back to August 1st.”
Edwards says there is about $44,000,000 for the remaining 50,000 recipients which will be processed in the morning.
“I’ve wanted to thank the Workforce Commission for working so hard to do that while we are preparing for and responding to this storm.”
Edwards call the effort the largest payment every made by the state of Louisiana in one day with respect to unemployment benefits.
