FEMA approves $300 unemployment payments for Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- FEMA has approved Wisconsin for a grant under the Lost Wages Assistance program, that will allow Wisconsin to provide $300 payments to those unemployed due to COVID-19. 

According to Department of Workforce Development Secretary Caleb Frostman, the $300 payments will be for claimants that are eligible for $100 or more in an unemployment insurance program. 

"We are hopeful this will be a benefit that will help Wisconsin families," said Frostman. 

Frostman says it could take several weeks before payments will start showing up for people. 

"Unfortunately, our antiquated IT mainframe system, we anticipate programming for this taking about four to five weeks and we like to do one to two weeks of testing to make sure payments are done correctly, so we're working on that now."

FEMA has allocated the money for three weeks, according to Frostman. 

"We feel very confident that three week allocation will be at least what we’re able to obtain from FEMA for this program," he said, "It’s possible that it could be longer but that’s what they start with, so we can ask for additional weeks after that."