Unemployment and Employment Programs Available to Workers Affected by Disasters

Summary

The federal government supports several programs that can provide assistance to workers who lose their jobs as a result of a natural or other disaster. In many cases, disaster-affected workers will be served by permanent programs and systems that generally provide assistance to workers who involuntarily lose their jobs. In some cases, disaster-triggered federal supports may be made available to provide additional assistance or aid to workers who do not qualify for assistance under the permanent programs.

This report discusses two income support programs and two workforce service programs. In each benefit category, there is a broader permanent program and a more-targeted program for disaster-affected workers. All of these programs are administered through state agencies and some programmatic details may be state-specific.

Unemployment Compensation (UC) provides a weekly cash payment to workers who are involuntarily unemployed and meet other criteria. States administer UC benefits with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) oversight. UC benefits are considered entitlements for eligible workers and funded via payroll taxes paid by employers.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) provides a weekly cash payment to individuals who become unemployed as a direct result of a major disaster and are not eligible for UC benefits. DUA is funded by the federal government and benefits are paid through each state’s UC agency.

Dislocated Worker Activities under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA-DW) are federal formula grants to states to provide training and career services to workers who involuntarily lose their jobs and meet other criteria. WIOA-DW grants are funded via DOL appropriations and administered by state workforce agencies and local partners with DOL oversight.

Disaster Dislocated Worker Grants (DDWGs) are competitive federal grants that support temporary disaster response jobs for workers who are unemployed as a direct result of a disaster. DDWGs are awarded by DOL to the state and local partners that receive WIOA-DW funds.

Since UC and DUA outlays increase as the need grows, these funds can be responsive to the scale of a disaster. Conversely, WIOA-DW and DDWG funds are limited by appropriations levels and therefore may be less immediately scalable than UC and DUA, which are entitlements for individuals.

In some instances, Congress has enacted legislation to temporarily expand these programs that serve disaster-affected workers or otherwise extend supplemental support to the states administering them. These prior efforts may serve as a model when Congress considers legislation to support workers affected by disasters.