Jobless Mainers will get $600 payments through state's new pandemic relief program
Up to 42,000 jobless Mainers could soon receive one-time relief payments of $600 from the state to help offset the pending loss of federal unemployment benefits, Gov. Janet Mills announced Wednesday.
Unless Congress acts to continue the benefits, tens of thousands of Maine residents are expected to lose vital relief funds when two initiatives of the federal CARES Act — the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs — expire on Dec. 26.
Mills has authorized the state Department of Economic and Community Development to make payments using $25.2 million in CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Funds Maine has received from the federal government, according to a news release.
The state’s new Pandemic Relief Program will distribute the payments to Mainers who are unemployed or partially unemployed as a result of the pandemic. Those eligible include self-employed workers, sole proprietors and other business owners. They must have exhausted their federal benefits and meet certain other criteria.
The program will automatically send the relief payments by Dec. 30, and recipients don’t have to apply separately for them.
“Families across Maine are still grappling with the unprecedented economic hardships caused by the pandemic. While this relief payment is not enough to make unemployed Maine people whole, it is our hope it will serve as a lifeline to sustain them during the holidays and until federal support arrives,” Mills said in the release.
“I urge Congress to provide funding to the states so that we can direct relief to the people.”
Department of Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman added, “We urge Congress to extend federal unemployment programs, but with their future unclear, we are stepping in to try to provide a level of assistance and certainty. We hope that this supplemental benefit will help struggling Maine people provide basic necessities for themselves and their families during these unprecedented times.”
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