(Photo: Dept. of Labor)
Oct. 11, 2021 By Allie Griffin
New York State has closed applications for the Excluded Workers Fund as the $2.1 billion fund is running out.
The state department of labor stopped accepting new applications Friday night to the program, which provides monetary aid to undocumented New Yorkers who lost their jobs during the pandemic and didn’t qualify for federal aid — like unemployment insurance and stimulus checks — due to their immigration status.
The labor department has distributed $1.2 billion — including $454,584,000 to Queens residents — from the fund to nearly 120,000 applicants since it opened in August. More than 99 percent of approved applicants received the maximum amount of $15,600 to date.
“We must ensure that immigrant communities are supported in our recovery, and I made a commitment from my first day in office to get relief to New Yorkers in need as quickly as possible,” Governor Kathy Hochul said.
However, there are thousands more applications still pending with limited funding left. In fact, the department of labor cannot guarantee that there will be funds available to all who applied.
According to the governor’s office, the fund is nearing exhaustion and New Yorkers who submitted applications after Sept. 24 are not guaranteed payment.
In Queens, more than half of applications to the fund have not been approved. Roughly 89,700 applications were filed by Queens residents and about 44,000 have been approved, according to labor department data.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who spearheaded the legislation to create the Excluded Workers Fund, called for additional funding.
“With 99% of approved applications qualifying for Tier 1 benefits, it is clear Unemployment Insurance excludes hundreds of thousands of taxpayers unfairly, and too many workers, particularly upstate, were unable to participate.” Ramos said. “We need supplemental funding to continue serving working families on their way to economic recovery.”
Advocates are also pushing for more funding, noting that some eligible New Yorkers faced hurdles in applying to the program. They said workers struggled to secure necessary documents and that upstate residents, in particular, had less support in applying to the program.
“The fact that this fund has been depleted barely two months after it first opened is a testament to how badly New Yorkers need this lifeline…,” Bianca Guerrero of the Fund Excluded Workers coalition said. “We can’t let workers get left out in the cold.”
“Our coalition is committed to fighting for additional funding, and we look forward to working with the Governor and state legislature to ensure full, equitable access for excluded workers across the state.”
The labor department is reviewing applications in the order they were received and will distribute the complete $2.1 billion by the end of the month.
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12 Comments
Unlimited funds for illegal aliens.
Oh no. Get ready for the protests!
Please extend this! AOC please get us more money. There are so many that did not get to apply in time.
Where’s this money coming from?
The first sentence of the article can give you more info. Like Trump’s stimulus checks that went out to everyone, including the very wealthy, this will be taxpayer funded. He also pretended he’d secure our borders and get Mexico to make a “one-time payment” for it. That was a lie, and guess what, we have more undocumented immigrants as a result. Let’s blame the liberals!
Trump started the stay in Mexico policy, Biden ended it. This is the reason we are seeing record number of illegals crossing the southern border. Biden gave them an open invitation to come, and boy are them coming in by the thousands.
The Trump stimulus did not go to “everyone, including the very wealthy “. It didn’t even go to the middle class.
doesnt money grow on trees? thats ok, biden will just print more money. what could go wrong?
ABoondy- There is no new money being added. The only new money being printed is printed to take the worn money out of circulation. Kindly, explain your statement since money is put into circulation and taken out of circulation under every US President.
right. that 3.5 trillion dollar spend is going to come from magical trees. or a huge increase in taxes.
We certainly are printing money…what do you think causes inflation??…are you really that clueless??
https://techstartups.com/2021/05/22/40-us-dollars-existence-printed-last-12-months-america-repeating-mistake-1921-weimar-germany/
@Quantitive Easing- Kindly take a remedial reading class. Your Tech Startup article states, quote “On January 6, 2020, the US Federal Reserve had around $4 trillion dollars. On January 4, 2021, the number increased to $6.7 trillion dollars.”
Media fact check gives tech start up .com as a questionable source leaning right.
Joe Biden did not take office until January 20,2021 which is well after the time frame mentioned in your article.