Jan and Bill emailed me so I thought I’d pass along what I know!
Part of the Federal CARES act includes an extra $600/week ON TOP of what you may already receive in Unemployment Insurance benefits. In California, the weekly benefit tops out at $450. That means you could bring in $1,050/week! This says the bonus is to run from March 29 – July 31, 2020.
I don’t know the situation in your shire… (Warning: A side effect of staying home is that I have started to speak in Ye Olde Timey English), but in California you do not have to do anything to get the extra $600/week if you are already signed up for unemployment.
This says “The additional payments of $600 a week will occur automatically for anybody eligible for any amount of state unemployment benefits — even as little as $1. The payments will continue through July 31 for anyone still impacted at that time.” Checks started going out Sunday, April 12th. The bonus payments will be retroactive to March 29th.
This morning, I received an email from Bank of America stating that $600 had been deposited in my designated unemployment account. This makes sense. My job as a thespian has come to a halt, so I filed for unemployment for the week ending 4/4/2020. That $600 must be for that week. That’s some happy cabbage!
If you are not signed up for your state’s unemployment benefits, you might wanna. In California, you can also apply if you are someone who gets paid 1099 income. This includes, Business owners, Self-employed individuals, and Independent contractors. Here’s that info on California’s website (Thanks Pat for sending me that link). See if you qualify. The site says “The EDD will begin accepting online applications for this program on Tuesday, April 28.”
California is also giving $500/person to people here illegally. I’m not sure how that works. I have three jokey guesses, but I don’t wanna wake up the always jovial Twitter Heroes while they’re resting.
Pip pip and Cheerio!
