San Luis Obispo County residents whose ability to work was affected by winter storms that rolled through the county starting in late February are now eligible to apply for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) benefits.
The announcement Monday by the California Employment Development Department (EDD) applies to both full-time and part-time workers who lost work or self-employment as “a direct result of impacts caused by ongoing severe storms,” the EDD press release said.
The benefits are also available to business owners whose businesses were affected by the storms.
DUA benefits are offered to victims of a federally declared disaster and are available to individuals who meet any of the following criteria:
- Worked or were a business owner or self-employed, or were scheduled to begin work or self-employment, in the disaster area. This includes, and is not limited to, those in the agricultural and fishing industries.
- Cannot reach work because of the disaster or can no longer work or perform services because of physical damage or destruction to the place of employment as a direct result of the disaster.
- Cannot perform work or self-employment because of an injury as a direct result of the disaster.
- Became the head of their household because of a death caused by the disaster.
Eligible full-time workers can expect between $171 and 450 a week in benefits for a maximum of 32 weeks. Eligible individuals who were unemployed as of Feb. 26 may have their benefits backdated to cover the entire period they were unemployed because of the effects of the storms, the department said.
SLO County residents must file an application by July 19 to be considered for benefits unless the individual has a “good cause” for a late application.
Payment benefits end Oct. 7, 2023.
“EDD is required to first check to see if the applicant is eligible for regular state-provided Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits before processing the claim for DUA benefits,” the department’s press release said. “Individuals must have applied for and used all regular unemployment benefits, or do not qualify for regular unemployment benefits and remain unemployed as a direct result of the disaster. Also, the work or self-employment they can no longer perform must have been their primary source of income.”
The fastest and easiest way to file an application for new claimants is to use EDD’s UI Online application.
The benefits are administered by EDD, the same department that administered COVID-related unemployment benefits during the beginning and peak of the pandemic.
