Residents in 9 Michigan counties can file for unemployment aid if impacted by severe storms in August 2023
(CBS DETROIT) - Residents in nine Michigan counties can receive Disaster Unemployment Assistance after severe storms struck different areas in August 2023.
This comes after President Joe Biden made FEMA funding available for residents in Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Kent, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, and Wayne counties who were impacted by tornadoes, severe storms, and flooding between Aug. 24 and Aug. 26, 2023.
According to a release from the state's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, affected residents can receive up to 50 weeks of benefits as long as continued unemployment resulted from the severe storms.
Residents have until March 27 to file for this assistance.
To be eligible, impacted residents must meet all of the following requirements:
- Apply for regular unemployment insurance benefits.
- Not qualify for regular unemployment insurance benefits from any state.
- Be an unemployed or self-unemployed worker whose unemployment was a direct result of the major disaster declared by the president.
- Be a U.S. national or a qualified alien.
- Worked, was self-employed, or was scheduled to begin work or self-employment in one of the nine counties.
- Establish that the work or self-employment that can no longer be performed was a primary source of income.
Residents must also meet one or more of the following:
- Can no longer work or perform services because of physical damage or destruction to the place of employment due to the disaster.
- Cannot perform work or self-employment because of an injury caused by the disaster.
- Became the breadwinner or major support of a household because of the death of the head of the household as a direct result of this disaster.
- Cannot work or perform self-employment due to the closure of a facility by the federal government as a direct result of this disaster.
- Was to begin work and no longer has a job or is unable to reach the job as a direct result of the disaster.
To file for the assistance, residents will need their Social Security number, the name and address of last employer or prospective employer and proof they were employed or self-employed (or were scheduled to begin a job) when the severe storms happened.
Residents will need to download a Disaster Unemployment Assistance packet to file for the assistance.
Due to the FEMA funding that is being provided, if anyone if unable to meet the deadline to submit their tax returns they should contact the Treasury.