By Shannon Holmes
September 12, 2005

The U.S Department of Labor (DOL) released information September 6 about the steps it was taking to aid people affected by Hurricane Katrina. The department is responding through three major income support programs — National Emergency Grants (NEGs) to create temporary jobs that provide pay checks to dislocated workers and help the recovery efforts; Unemployment Insurance (UI); and Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA).

So far over the past week DOL Secretary Elaine Chao has rewarded $191.1 million dollars in NEGs to create more than 40,000 temporary jobs in the region:

• $4 million for Alabama awarded on August 31, 2005;

• $50 million for Mississippi awarded on September 2, 2005;

• $62.1 million for Louisiana awarded on Sept. 3, 2005; and

• $75 million for Texas on Sept. 6, 2005 to serve Louisiana evacuees.

It is expected that more grants will be awarded, because any state accepting evacuees can apply for National Emergency Grants to serve individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina. There are currently 14 additional states plus the District of Columbia that are eligible.

As soon as the NEG funds are sent to the state, recruitment and deployment of jobs is allowed for individuals dislocated by the hurricane, other dislocated workers and the long—term unemployed. Theses categories of workers are eligible to seek jobs that will pay up to $12,000 for up to six months of work, with the possibility for overtime and fringe benefits to be added on top of the base pay. For those workers who do not have the skills required for the available jobs, skilled workers hired as supervisors will provide on-the-job training to bring lower skilled workers up to speed as quickly as possible or low skilled workers will be placed in temporary "laborer" jobs to complete clean up work, which is what most of the NEG funding supports.

With regards to the other two programs, Unemployment Insurance and Disaster Unemployment Assistance, both provide unemployment benefits for 26 weeks. However the DUA is for those workers who are affected but not eligible for normal UI. Because of the lack of verifiable documentation, waivers have been granted to those states that have been declared disaster states so that workers can be registered and still receive benefits.

Claims are being processed immediately to get the money into the hands of those who need it. So far more than 10,000 evacuee claims have been processed in Texas; Tennessee expects to process about 40,000 claims; and 3,419 evacuee claims have been processed in Georgia. State and local workforce staff members are working at FEMA sites, community colleges, churches, community centers, and evacuee sites to reach evacuees and assist them in filing claims as quickly as possible.

DOL has set up a 24/7 toll free number 1-866-4-USA-DOL where displaced persons can find out how to apply for these jobs or how to apply for unemployment and disaster unemployment insurance. States are setting up toll free numbers, as well.