Disaster Unemployment Assistance Extended For Additional 13 Weeks
Release Date: March 14, 2006
Release Number: 1603-397
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Katrina
» More Information on Louisiana Hurricane Rita
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana residents and displaced evacuees who are unemployed because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been granted an additional 13 weeks to receive disaster unemployment assistance (DUA).
On March 6, President Bush signed Bill 1777, which extends the benefit period for nearly 400,000 individuals nationwide to continue to receive DUA payments.
Benefits for individuals who were affected by Hurricane Katrina are extended to June 4th and Hurricane Rita affected individuals until June 24th.
The DUA program extends income compensation to people who would normally be ineligible for unemployment compensation such as farmers and self-employed individuals who are out of work as a result of a disaster.
To date, $129.2 million have been approved for Hurricane Katrina applicants and $3.1 million has been approved for those left without income due to Hurricane Rita.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003
Last Modified: Tuesday, 14-Mar-2006 08:58:43