The
Montana Department of Labor & Industry (DLI) today announced that just
under 40,000 Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments totaling over $12.5M were
issued the week of November 30 through December 4, providing benefits to
eligible Montanans. The new $200 weekly Interim Pandemic Assistance (IPA)
benefit, available for a four-week period, accounted for over one-quarter of
the weekly total paid.
Other
payments included regular UI benefits, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment
Compensation (PEUC) benefits, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)
benefits. Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) payments shown
below were issued for weeks claimed and not previously approved between UI
weeks ending April 4 through July 25, 2020. The UI week ending July 25, 2020,
was the last full week the extra $600 was authorized under the federal CARES
Act. Due to the decline in Montana’s insured unemployment rate, Extended
Benefits triggered off as of UI benefit week ending November 14. EB payments
shown below were issued for weeks claimed and not previously approved.
Below is a
data breakdown of outgoing UI payments for the week of November 30 through
December 4:
|
Date
Payments Distributed
|
Regular
UI Benefits
|
Reg
UI & PEUC FPUC Payments
|
PUA
Benefits
|
PUA-FPUC
Payments
|
IPA
Payments
|
PUA
IPA Payments
|
PEUC
Benefits
|
Extended
Benefits
|
Total
Payments - $
|
Total
# of Payments
|
|
30-Nov
|
$2,608,216
|
$60,000
|
$224,680
|
$84,817
|
-
|
-
|
$977,544
|
$16,415
|
$3,998,973
|
11,541
|
|
1-Dec
|
$532,856
|
-
|
$1,721,330
|
$202,961
|
$1,624,800
|
$1,267,300
|
$143,749
|
$2,779
|
$5,460,476
|
22,436
|
|
2-Dec
|
$540,837
|
-
|
$453,103
|
$114,854
|
$70,000
|
$133,800
|
$86,211
|
$2,997
|
$1,200,939
|
2,512
|
|
3-Dec
|
$441,383
|
-
|
$404,771
|
$227,556
|
$50,800
|
$82,800
|
$68,075
|
$4,198
|
$1,117,114
|
1,796
|
|
4-Dec
|
$377,275
|
$9,600
|
$325,137
|
$140,182
|
$36,000
|
$60,200
|
$57,594
|
$955
|
$918,651
|
1,299
|
|
Total
|
$4,500,567
|
$69,600
|
$3,129,021
|
$770,370
|
$1,781,600
|
$1,544,100
|
$1,333,173
|
$27,344
|
$12,696,153
|
39,584
|
The
total number of payments does not represent the number of people who received
payment.
IPA
payments are distributed separate from regular UI benefits and drove the
two-fold increase in number of payments over the prior week.
DLI
continues to encourage anyone who believes they may be eligible for UI to file
a claim online at MontanaWorks.gov, or at mtpua.mt.gov for those that fall
under the
PUA eligibility guidelines. Those with technical,
eligibility, or benefits questions are encouraged to view the COVID-19 resource
website at
dli.mt.gov/covid-19. A variety of information for both Montana workers
and employers are available, in addition to resources to help claimants
navigate the unemployment process.
A landing
page for easy access to relevant Labor Market Information, including UI claims
data, is available here:
dli.mt.gov/labor-market-information.