NEW JERSEY – Just over 100,000 New Jerseyans who are potentially eligible to receive FEMA Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) can still certify for the benefit.
Claimants who are potentially eligible are being notified via email and text message Tuesday and Wednesday with instructions. The email address is ui-noreply@dol.nj.gov with the name displaying as NJDOL; text messages will come from 898-211. These notifications will go to the email addresses and phone numbers claimants have provided. Anyone who thinks they may be eligible but did not receive notice should check their spam folder.
Those who are notified need to take action by 11:59 pm Thursday. Anyone who does not receive notification from the Labor Department is not eligible for the FEMA payments. There is no need to call the Labor Department.
The federal $300 weekly payments are for claimants who:
- were unemployed for all or part of the six-week period from Aug. 1 through Sept. 5;
- were eligible for at least $100 in unemployment benefits; and
- were unemployed for a COVID-19 related reason.
“Since New Jersey did not exhaust its federal allotment for this program when we distributed $1.2 billion in FEMA payments to 778,000 claimants, we’re pleased to be able to expand the opportunity to people who have not yet certified,” Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said. “Our top priority is to get as much economic relief to unemployed New Jerseyans as possible.”
The FEMA payment is a limited-time supplemental benefit of $300 per week for maximum of six weeks, or $1,800. New Jersey is issuing lump-sum payments.
Eligible claimants can expect to receive payment in their direct deposit accounts or debit cards Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, depending on their bank.
