Disaster Unemployment Assistance Available
Release Date: October 25, 2005
Release Number: 1603-112
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BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana residents and displaced evacuees who have lost their jobs due to the ravages of recent hurricanes may be able to claim disaster unemployment benefits even if they are not normally eligible for state unemployment compensation.
Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) extends income compensation to self-employed people, farm workers, people who have worked for only a few weeks, and others who have lost earned income or whose income has been interrupted as a result of a major disaster declared by the President of the United States.
DUA is available as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to unemployed U.S. nationals and qualified aliens who worked or were self-employed if they:
- Worked or were self-employed in or were scheduled to begin work or self-employment in an area declared as a federal disaster area.
- Can no longer work or perform services because of physical damage or destruction to the place of employment as a direct result of a disaster.
- Establish that the work or self-employment they can no longer perform was their primary source of income.
- Do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance benefits from any state.
- Cannot perform work or self-employment because of an injury or because they were incapacitated as a direct result of the disaster.
- Became the breadwinner or major support of a household because of the death of the head of the household.
- Cannot work or perform self-employment due to closure of a facility by the federal government.
- Lose a majority of income or revenue because the employer or self-employed business was damaged, destroyed, or closed by the federal government. (Suffering a monetary loss due to damage of property or crops does not automatically entitle an individual to Disaster Unemployment Assistance.)
Claims may be filed in person at any Louisiana Department of Labor One Stop or job center; online at www.LAWORKS.net; or by calling 1-800-430-8076 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Individuals living or working in the following parishes have until November 30 to file for DUA: Acadia, Allen, Ascension, Assumption, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Point Coupee, Plaquemines, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 25-Oct-2005 09:12:34