FEMA Approves Lost Wages Grant for Hawai‘i to Support $300 Per Week Unemployment Benefit

State seal. Photo by Wendy Osher.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Pete Gaynor approved Hawaiʻi for a FEMA grant under the Lost Wages Assistance program.

FEMA’s grant funding will allow Hawaiʻi to provide $300 per week, on top of their regular unemployment benefit, to those unemployed due to COVID-19.

FEMA will work with Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige to implement a system to make this funding available to Hawaiʻi residents.  Gov. Ige applied for the program earlier this week saying recipients must be eligible for at least $100 in weekly benefit and must certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Payments would be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2020.

On Aug. 8, 2020, President Trump made available up to $44 billion from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to Americans who have lost wages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the state of Hawaiʻi agreed to administer a lost wages program for its citizens who are unemployed due to COVID-19.

To learn more about FEMA’s lost wages supplemental payment assistance, click here.