Employers whose businesses were ordered to shut down or significantly affected by health orders may apply for unemployment benefit relief by September 30.

The Legislature approved $25 million for the COVID-19 Unemployment Account by passing House Bill 2965 earlier this year. This amount means that approved employers will likely receive less than 1% of unemployment benefit relief because the State has paid out over $2.3 billion of the state’s trust fund.

ESD has now filed rules to define how employers can qualify for assistance from the Account. Supporting documents for the final rule are available on the Department’s rulemaking page.

Instructions for applying for the offset can be found here. All applications must be received by September 30, 2020 to be eligible.