$300 jobless boost available week of Sept. 21 in Washington

OLYMPIA — Those unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic will start receiving an additional $300 in unemployment benefits later this month.

The Employment Security Department announced Tuesday the the payments would be processed starting Sept. 21, and that eligible claimants should receive the money within a few days.

Payments will be retroactive to Aug. 1 and will be on top of the regular weekly unemployment benefit. Not everyone who has filed a claim will be eligible for the extra funding, and ESD has said that the benefit is currently time-limited to those filing claims over a three-week period, between July 26 and Aug. 15.

In order to qualify for the weekly bonus, people must certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to COVID-19.

Washington’s application for the short-term federal program was approved last week.

The program came about through an executive order by President Donald Trump after a federally funded $600 boost to weekly state unemployment benefits ended at the end of July.