JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri’s labor department will start handing out an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits provided by the federal government as soon as this week.
People out of work were getting an extra federally funded $600 a week on top of state unemployment benefits, but that expired at the end of July.
With Congress and President Donald Trump so far unable to agree to a broader new coronavirus relief plan, the president signed an executive order Aug. 8 to extend the added weekly benefit, but cut it to $300 or $400 a week.
Missouri will be boosting state unemployment aid with another $300 a week.
The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations on Monday also announced it will pay workers $300 a week dating back to the last week of July, when the $600 federal boost ended. The retroactive payments won’t all come at once. The agency plans to send the first payments out this week and pay the rest next week.
Trump’s executive order keeps the program in place until late December, though it will be scrapped if Congress comes up with a different program or if the money for the program is depleted, which is likely to happen within a few months.
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