Hi everyone this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda with Ignition Time. In this video i'll
answer the question will you get an extra $300 a week or an
extra $400 a week based on the lost wages
assistance program that was created as a result of the executive order signed by
the President? The short answer to the question is it
depends on your state. Now at the time i'm recording this video
a majority of the 19 states that have applied for the assistance
with FEMA are paying the lower amount. The $300 a
week amount and there are only 3 states
at the time i'm recording this video. Kentucky,
Montana and West Virginia that are paying the full $400
amount. In other words, the $300 from the federal government
and $100 from the states which is still technically money from the federal
government because that came through the
Cares Act into the CRF fund. Remember the CRF fund C stands for
the illness. CRF fund is money that came from the
Cares Act to the states and the DRF fund which is the disaster
relief fund is money from FEMA which is money from the federal government. So
again there are three states at the time i'm recording this video,
Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia who are paying the full $400
a week benefits the state unemployment benefits plus the $400
a week to their residents. So states are now starting to pay out money. Arizona is
one state that already started paying out money
to its residents. And what's now what's happening now is like I said some states
are paying more than others. Now again this is all part of the lost
wages assistance program that I referred to earlier. Now keep in mind that states
have the option to kick in an extra $100 a week.
They don't have to do it when the President rolled out the executive
order. He made it appear that the states would
put in $100 and then the federal government would put in $300 but since
then the federal government has essentially
amended their position and said hey even if the states don't put in
$100, we'll still give you the $300 a week as long as
those who are eligible are getting at least $100 in state
benefits. So there are some stipulations which might explain why the states are
taking more time to implement the delivery of this money because
it's not like the states get the money today and can start paying it out
tomorrow. They have to go through their own
calculations, they have to go through their own formulas, they have to see
who's eligible, who's not eligible they have to make sure that
the transference of this money complies with local laws because every state
unemployment system essentially set up a different way and it's not streamlined.
I've mentioned this in previous videos once this is all over I foresee a
streamline, a streamlining if you will of the
unemployment benefit systems across the entire country. Now I mentioned three
states earlier Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia that were
going to pay the full $400 week benefits. Now let me be clear as of
today, Montana is the only state that is
implementing the $400 a week option. This is according to a
FEMA spokesperson because the federal government approved
Montana's grant application this week. The other two states, let's talk about
West Virginia. West Virginia submitted an application but has not yet
received approval and as far as Kentucky goes, it seems at the time i'm recording
this video Kentucky officials have also already
submitted the application to FEMA according to Governor Andy
Beshear and paying out the $400 weekly benefit would be contingent on
government approval, according to officials from the state of
Kentucky. At the time i'm recording this video officials from colorado have said
that they've they still haven't decided whether
they're going to pay the full 400 or the 300
and it seems that many states are opting to pay for the lower amount
due to specific program rules and due to limitations in funding
due to the challenges associated with the technical infrastructure within the
states now i want to give all my viewers and
subscribers a sense of the financial impact
the weekly financial impact associated with the 400
a week booster as compared to the 600 a week booster that expired at the end of
july on your screen right now you'll see a
chart and this chart shows you the average unemployment benefits in
different states with and without the additional relief
so that light blue dot that you see on your
screen that is the average weekly benefit i do want to repeat that
that is the average weekly benefit your benefit may be
higher or lower depending on what your state deems
you to be eligible for so again that's the average weekly benefit
the yellow dot signifies that how much individuals were getting on average
weekly when you add 600 to the average weekly
benefit so you can see that yellow dot is all the way to the right side of your
screen because the 600 a week unemployment booster was
significant it was a lifeline for a lot of individuals i've been
reading my viewers subscribers and comments it allowed individuals to save
it allowed individuals to pay off debt and and you know it was it was it was
helpful for a lot of individuals now that that's gone obviously at the time
we are recording this if you look at that dark blue that dark
blue dot that is how that is what we get to with
the 400 a week benefit so if we take the average
weekly benefit and then we add 400 a week and let's
scroll through this chart you'll see how for different states
different people end up getting different amounts because
the average weekly state ui benefit is different for each state
and so when you add 400 to that you go from essentially that
light blue pointer to the dark blue pointer because that difference is 400
and you can see the difference as we scroll down across different states some
states have a significantly higher benefit
than others i mean you can see states like north dakota you can see states
like washington which had a significantly higher benefit
with the 600 a week booster massachusetts had a significant boost uh
hawaii also had a significant boost when you look at that yellow dot
now also with the also with that sort of that dark blue
that dark blue pointer again that is where you get to with the 400
weak benefit i do want to clarify that at the time i'm recording this video
a majority of states that have indeed applied for the funding
are going to not chip in the hundred dollars so they're going to give their
residents 300 and on top of that the benefits are not
going to arrive immediately many states have said it could take a few weeks for
them to be able to start rolling out these benefits and so it's going to take
a few weeks before money starts appearing in the bank account
of state residents now i just want my viewers and subscribers to know that
initially the way president trump had sort of mentioned it or propagated
this lost wages assistance program in his executive order he said
that the states would have to chip in hundred dollars and then they would get
the 300 but now fema has actually changed their position
they've said that states can count the benefits that they are already paying
to their residents as part of the fulfillment of their share
in other words they do not have to kick in any additional money and
as you can imagine that's the route that most states are taking
in fact according to keith turi who's fema's assistant administrator of
recovery he said and i quote the majority of states so
far have indicated that they'll take the 300
federal payment with the match being provided by their existing
unemployment payments so as you can see most states essentially took the way out
and said hey we're already paying out unemployment
just give us the extra 300 and we'll pass it on
to our state residents that's the route most states are taking in fact kentucky
montana and west virginia have specifically indicated that they will
use federal funding allocated to the states through the cares act
to pay for the 100 weekly portion so they're actually
essentially executing the program exactly as intended
take the hundred dollars a week from that crf fund and then take the three
hundred dollars which is coming from the drf fund and pay
your residents the full four hundred dollars a week but keep in mind
there are just three states that are paying the full four hundred dollars a
week at the time i'm recording this video a
majority of the states are just saying hey give me the money
and i'll pay an extra 300 a week and i'm going to use my existing payments
through the unemployment system to count towards my match so why is it that other
states cannot ship in the extra hundred dollars a week well
they don't have the ability to draw from the crf fund what does that mean that
means that about 25 percent of the money in the crf fund which was
supposed to be used for 100 benefit has already been spent as of the
30th of june many weeks before the president's
executive order and some states have already earmarked
part of that money for future costs according to the committee
for a responsible federal budget in fact many states have already
borrowed money from the federal government to cover current unemployment
obligations imagine the states are not even able to
cover their current unemployment obligations
because they haven't been getting enough money coming in so they actually
borrowed money from the federal government to cover
their basic their foundational state obligations and so they don't have the
money to chip in an extra one hundred dollars
so they're basically saying hey we'll take the 300 that fema gives us
and we'll just pass them on as is thank you so much for watching
everyone i hope you learned something new from this video
my name is dr nitin shoda with ignition time if you don't know anything about me
i've had the privilege the honor the fortune of living the american dream
definitely check out my video on the channel my introduction
video where i tell you a little bit about myself
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so