LANSING -- The following is a report from the DELEG:
Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency has restored federal unemployment benefits to some 69,500 jobless workers in the state who had their benefits cutoff in July when the federal extension programs expired.
“We have issued approximately $38 million in retroactive payments through the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Extended Benefit programs over the past week and half,” Stephen Geskey, director of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA), reported today.
“In fact, we began making some of the federal unemployment benefit payments on Friday, July 23, the day after President Obama signed legislation reactivating the two federal programs,” he added.
UIA had been encouraging the unemployed to continue to claim their federal benefits by calling or going online to its MARVIN system, even after their benefits had been cutoff. Thus, the agency was able to resume benefit payments quickly to those who had been contacting MARVIN.
However, there were others that the agency needed to contact as they had exhausted their state unemployment benefits and could not apply to the EUC or EB programs, or they had exhausted the last of their EUC benefits and could not apply in time for the EB program.
UIA sent letters to individuals in these two groups telling them to call the agency on either Saturday, July 24 or 31. Agency staff was on hand both days to take about 12,000 claims for a federal extension.
Unemployed workers should have received their benefit payments two to three business days following their most recent contact with UIA’s MARVIN system. The average weekly benefit is about $300. Payments could include three or four weeks of retroactive benefits back to the week ending July 10.
“Before workers call the Unemployment Insurance Agency to say they haven’t received their benefits,” Geskey urged, “they should first check to see if a payment has been added to their UI debit card or to their bank account, if they use direct deposit.”
Those who have not yet received their extended federal jobless benefits should call the agency at 1-866-500-0017 from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
