By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Unemployed Livingston County residents should start receiving $900 payments in next 10 days.

The Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) has started processing payments for Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) for eligible Michiganders. The federal assistance will provide $300 per week to supplement unemployment benefits for those who are unemployed or partially unemployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.

UIA Director Steve Gray says initially, eligible claimants will receive assistance for the benefit weeks ending August 1st, 8th and 15th. Since the state is processing three weeks of payments at one time, many claimants will receive a $900 payment before taxes. Due to the large volume of payments to be processed, workers will begin receiving LWA payments over the next week to ten days. Workers do not have to file a separate claim or application for the assistance.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently alerted states that the LWA funds will only be available for a total of six weeks. States were initially granted three weeks of benefits and must apply for additional weeks. Michigan’s UIA has applied for all available weeks of benefits, which will be payable until the week ending September 5th.

More information about the payments is available in the attached press release.