Governor Kevin Stitt submitted the state’s application for a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to implement President Trump’s executive order providing an additional $300 for workers who lost their job due to COVID-19. The Lost Wages Assistance program began on August 1, and will end no later than December 27.
“As we are months ahead of other states in our recovery and Oklahoma is open for business, many Oklahomans have returned to work or are in training to take on a new career. However, we also want to continue to help those who are still working to secure employment. The teams at the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management have submitted the FEMA grant application to begin the process to allow the state to provide $300 in weekly benefits under the Lost Wages Assistance program announced by President Trump,” said Stitt.
Once the state’s application is approved, FEMA will provide the federal $300 dollars. Oklahoma will fulfill the 25 percent state match through funding that is already paid out to claimants in regular unemployment benefits.
However, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) interim director Shelley Zumwalt says it’ll take some work to add the benefits to the system.
“Working with legacy technology to implement this benefit will hinder the agency’s ability to make quick changes to the system, but our team will work as fast as possible given the constraints that exist dealing with 40-year-old technology. Regardless of the timeline, the benefit will be retroactive to Aug. 1, and all eligible claimants will receive back pay to that date once changes to the system have been put into production,” said Zumwalt.
