ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Comptroller Peter Franchot today announced that checks to the 27,181 recipients identified by the Maryland Department of Labor for unemployment grants have been processed and mailed. The payments were processed less than 24 hours after the Labor Department provided the Comptroller’s Office with a list of recipients, as required by the RELIEF Act.
The RELIEF Act provided appropriations for 32,000, one-time $1,000 grants to unemployment insurance filers who remain in adjudication and have not received unemployment payments. Under the legislation, the Secretary of Labor determines recipients of the unemployment grants, and the Comptroller’s Office – as the State’s paymaster – would disburse payments to the identified grant recipients.
“Through no fault of their own, these hardworking Marylanders have lost their incomes due to the pandemic and continue to struggle to secure unemployment payments needed to provide for themselves and their families,” Comptroller Franchot said. “I’m grateful that the General Assembly recognized that the state’s financial relief package needed to provide immediate relief for the tens of thousands of Marylanders stuck in unemployment limbo. I’m proud that our agency extensively prepared to ensure these payments would go out the door right away.”
The issuance of the Unemployment Insurance grants comes on the heels of the Comptroller’s Office processing more than 422,000 stimulus payments to eligible Marylanders (tax filers who claimed Earned Income Tax Credits on their 2019 tax returns) in the first four days after the RELIEF Act became state law on February 15.
The Comptroller’s website has a list of frequently asked questions on the unemployment grants. Taxpayers with inquiries on whether or not they are included in the Labor Department’s March 3 batch of recipients should e-mail uigrants@marylandtaxes.gov.