When will people find out if they earned Hero Pay?
MINNEAPOLIS -- More than a million Minnesotans are waiting to see if they will get hundreds of dollars from the state.
It's part of the Frontline Worker Pay program meant to compensate people for working during the pandemic.
When will people find out if they earned Hero Pay?
It's hard to put a number on just how many Minnesotans put themselves at risk early in the COVID-19 pandemic to earn a paycheck.
But we now know nearly 1.2 million feel they fit the criteria required to get a financial "thank you" from the state for their service.
August 16 is the key date to remember. That's when the state will send an email out to let applicants know if they were denied. It will be sent to the email address used in the application.
The application window closed on July 22. That means the state has 16 business days to process all the entries.
Given that 1,199,516 people applied, the state will be quite busy. It averages out to nearly 75,000 applications being analyzed on each business day leading up to Aug. 16.
If someone gets denied, what's the next step? It's likely they can fight the ruling through an appeal. There are five ways an application could get denied with a chance for appeal.
- If it was deemed a duplicate
- If it exceeds the unemployment benefit limit, which was 20 weeks.
- If it exceeds the adjusted gross income limit.
- If the applicant's employment eligibility could not be verified.
- If the applicant's identity couldn't be verified.
Each denial reason will have its own appeal form attached to it in the email sent on Aug. 16.
Five hundred million dollars was allocated for the program to be divided equally. The state's initial estimate was that 667,000 people were eligible for Hero Pay, meaning they would get $750 a person. If everyone who applied was eligible, it would drop to about $416. The dollar amount won't be known until the appeals process is finished.
If your application is denied, you'll have 15 days to appeal. Those eligible for Hero Pay will get the money in the fall between September and October. It will be either a direct deposit or a prepaid debit card.
To learn more about the process click here.
To see frequently answered questions about the appeals process click here.
