Greetings, last week, Florida announced it will apply to participate in the Federal Lost Wages Assistance Program created by the President’s Executive Order. The CARES Act additional $600 in unemployment benefits expired on 7/31, and mostly everyone on unemployment has been receiving the Florida $275 a week maximum since then.
Florida opting to participate in the FLWAP means everyone receiving Unemployment Benefits will get a retroactive (to 8/1/20) weekly additional $300, bringing the Florida weekly UE amount to $575. (The Executive Order implied the states should pay an additional extra $100 as well but it does not appear that Florida will be doing so.) FEMA just approved the Florida application.
Make sure you send any claimants collecting indemnity a DWC-19 for August to capture the retroactive payments for your offsets/overpayments. And get those DWC-4’s ready for overpayments. Approximately 1 million people in Florida are receiving unemployment benefits currently.
The Federal money is coming from a $44 Billion fund within FEMA, and the additional $300 runs out when that fund runs out for all states. Estimates are it will last 3 weeks to a month. After that, unless an agreement is reached by Congress, Florida will revert back to our state $275 UE benefit. Here is Gov. DeSantis’ press release: