The Department of Workforce Development announced target dates when self-employed, independent contractors, and gig workers can get unemployment insurance. The changes were made possible by federal relief efforts, but took time for the state to implement.
DWD says it should be able to accept online unemployment insurance applications for self-employed workers starting April 24. The actual payments will begin May 4. Those who have already filed for pandemic unemployment assistance and have been denied will get an email with additional instructions from the department, if they haven't already.
DWD Commissioner Fred Payne cautions that these are target dates and could change slightly in the coming weeks.
“One thing that we all know with large scale IT projects – there could always be delays,” he says. “But based upon the information that we have at the time, those are two good dates for us.”
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Payne also says the online unemployment system will be offline for several hours Thursday night. That’s to make updates that will allow additional $600 weekly payments, authorized under federal pandemic unemployment compensation provisions, to go to those already approved for benefits starting Friday.
Contact Justin at jhicks@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @Hicks_JustinM.
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