Expanded unemployment payments to resume next week

Unemployed New Jerseyans may begin receiving supplemental $300 dollar payments next week, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced Wednesday.

The department will begin processing the payments, authorized under the most recent expansion of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, this weekend.

“We were among the first states to distribute the earlier federal supplemental payments to workers after the passage of the CARES Act in April, and are equally proud to get this new federal relief out the door quickly,” Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said. “Staff hires and automation upgrades completed since the spring have helped make it possible for us to get this benefit to struggling New Jerseyans with no gap or delay.”

The weekly payments come under the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program and could continue for up to 11 weeks, until the program sunsets on March 13.

Residents who recently exhausted Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation payments may not see the new benefits for a few weeks, but they’ll be able to collect missed payments retroactively.

“We know what a welcome relief this additional benefit will be to hundreds of thousands of unemployed residents, who are struggling to find work as the pandemic lingers,” Asaro-Angelo said.