Louisiana Spends $400M in Benefits Not Allowed Get our free mobile app The Advocate reports nearly 100,000 people got money they were not entitled to receive. Our report analyzed wages reported to LWC by employers for the period of January 2020 through September 2020. In order to qualify for State and select Federal Unemployment Insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with wages reported to LWC by employers were required to have (1) been classified as an employee by their employer; (2) lost income or their job through no fault of their own; and (3) earned no more than $247 per week from any secondary employer or source of income.