TDLWD will add the $300 to current Tennessee Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, or Extended Benefits payments.
The state’s maximum unemployment benefit is $275. When combined with the new program, the maximum possible benefit in Tennessee will be $575 per week, before federal withholding taxes.
The grant requires claimants to receive at least $100 in state or federal unemployment benefits each week to be eligible for the new LWA payment.
The LWA payments will be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2020. Eligible claimants currently receiving benefits do not need to take any action because the state will automatically add LWA to their weekly benefit payment.
Unlike the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program (FPUC) that ended in July, LWA is paid for through a grant with a specific amount of funding. It is important to note when the federal program exhausts its grant funding, it will no longer have the resources to provide LWA payments and the program will end at that time. If the federal program does not exhaust the LWA grant funding, payments will end in Tennessee on Saturday, December 26, 2020.