OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt
Credit Twitter / @OESCnews
Citing conflicting federal guidance, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reversed course Wednesday on $400 payments to around 120,000 Oklahomans announced last week.
OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt said last week she was told the agency could do that with remaining funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Lost Wages Assistance program. Now, however, Zumwalt says with lawmakers closing in on a new coronavirus relief package that could include another round of enhanced unemployment benefits, things have changed. We have received guidance that if we were to pay out these funds and legislation was passed, we could potentially put claimants in an overpayment situation and have to recall those funds. My fear is, if this happened, we could potentially put claimants at risk for being able to receive these new federal benefits, Zumwalt said in a video posted to Twitter.
The Latest: Brazil s COVID-19 cases surge past 7 million | National Business News voiceofalexandria.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from voiceofalexandria.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
State officials have hit pause on a plan to send out one-time $400 payments to people who lost their jobs due to COVID-19.
Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt said in a news release Wednesday that the payments would be on hold after the state agency received what it called âconflicting guidanceâ about the use of the excess funds, which might be seen as overpayments that would have to be returned.
State officials announced last week that one-time $400 payments from unused Lost Wages Assistance program funds administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be sent to about 120,000 out-of-work Oklahomans.
The total remains the world’s third highest, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The ministry also reported 936 deaths from the disease. Neither its newly reported deaths nor cases included data from Sao Paulo state, Brazil’s most populous and where the toll has been heaviest. In a text message, the health ministry cited “technical problems,” without elaborating.
The number of cases and deaths in Latin America’s largest nation has rebounded since local leaders eased restrictions and pandemic fatigue set in.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently undermined quarantine measures and downplayed the virus’ severity, said at a public event last week that Brazil is at “the tail end of the pandemic.”
Lost Wages Assistance funding on hold until federal vote
KJRH Creative Services
and last updated 2020-12-16 14:21:39-05
TULSA, Okla. â Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) is putting a hold on distribution of the remaining Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) funding, pending federal legislation that may require these funds be returned.
Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt issued the following statement:
âThe Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program has been overseen by two federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Labor and FEMA. This arrangement is unlike the CARES Act programs passed earlier this year and the LWA program stands alone as an anomaly in the way it is structured and overseen. We have been in communication with both of these federal agencies and have received conflicting guidance from them about the path forward for distributing LWA funds.â