Governor Grudgingly Applies For $300 Trump Unemployment Benefit

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Illinois Department of Economic Security announced Monday that it has submitted an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take part in a new federal program to provide an extra $300 in additional weekly unemployment benefits to eligible workers.

Forty other states have already been approved for the Lost Wages Assistance program, and more than $15 billion of the $45 billion in disaster relief funds allocated to it have already been awarded, according to FEMA officials. State officials said the money is projected to last only three weeks, even though the program is supposed to run until late December.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker was sharply critical of the program, which was created by an executive order from President Donald Trump after the Congress allowed the previous pandemic unemployment program to expire at the end of July. In a release, his office characterized the program's eligibility requirements as unfair and the creation of an entirely new federal benefits program as inefficient.

“President Trump’s program will likely cut off the most vulnerable workers, create needless competition among the states for these limited FEMA dollars, and sow more confusion among the unemployed," Pritzker said, "so I want to caution that those eligible for these dollars will likely encounter frustration and unfairness brought on by the President’s short-sighted and short lived program."

To be eligible for the supplemental benefit, jobless workers must already be collecting $100 a week in benefits. According to the governor's office, that means approximately 55,000 low-income Illinois residents who receive under that amount in weekly benefits will be excluded from the program.

“However, the $300 benefit will provide much needed assistance for those who can get it, too many of whom are facing terrible choices about whether to pay their rent, buy groceries or get medicine," Pritzker added. "We will do everything in our power to make sure every eligible recipient can participate in this program.”

RELATED: Illinois To Apply For Federal Lost Wages Assistance Program

The first states received approval for the new program Aug. 15, and two days later Arizona became the first state to begin disbursing the funding.

Pritzker said last week it took a "lot of set up on an internal basis" to set up the program. The governor's office has not provided a timeline for when eligible Illinois workers may begin to see the additional $300 payments.