September 08, 2020
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The Lost Wages Assistance program will provide an additional $300 per week to unemployed Pennsylvania residents who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pennsylvania residents who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis now can apply for additional weekly unemployment benefits through the Lost Wages Assistance program.
Applications for the federal program became available Sunday through the state's Office of Unemployment Compensation. Residents who successfully apply for benefits may begin receiving an additional $300 per week later this month.
The LWA program application can be found in the same application used to file biweekly unemployment compensation claims. It can be completed online or printed and submitted by mail.
The LWA program replaces the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which provided unemployed residents with an additional $600 per week. That program expired on July 25.
Pennsylvania was approved to join the LWA program late last month, receiving $1.5 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Anyone with a weekly benefit rate or dependent allowance totaling at least $100 is eligible to apply to the program – if they lost their job due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Applicants also must be receiving benefits from one of several qualifying programs: Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, State Extended Benefits, Shared-Work and Trade Readjustment Allowances.
Those who already receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits do not need to reapply. They will automatically begin receiving LWA benefits when they become available.
The program will run for at last five weeks and conclude Dec. 27 – or when funding is no longer available. Payments will be paid retroactively for the weeks ending Aug. 1, Aug. 8, Aug. 15, Aug. 22 and Aug. 29.
Payments will be made to residents at the end of each week.
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