Update April 20, 2020:
The Virginia Employment Commission has released the second step that gig workers, self-employed and solopreneurs need to take to file for unemployment benefits.
Read below for information about the first step BEFORE you take step 2.
Original article April 17, 2020:
Self-employed Virginia residents and gig-economy workers will be waiting a few more weeks for their unemployment benefits to start rolling in.
An April 14 memo from the Virginia Employment Commission referencing "individuals who are self-employed, gig workers, 1099 filers, and other workers not covered under the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act" are eligible for federal unemployment benefits under the CARES Act.
However, "the Virginia Employment Commission is in the process of standing up an IT solution to pay the federally funded benefits under the CARES Act. We hope to have this functionality in 2 to 3 weeks."
The IT system enabling gig workers to apply for the benefits could be up and running was supposed to be ready this week, but it may not be available until next week instead.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 410,000 Virginia residents have applied for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks. More than 22 million have applied nationwide.
About 75,000 of those people are "gig economy" workers or the self-employed who have seen their client base drop off in the economic fallout from COVID-19. Normally, these people are not eligible for unemployment benefits, but the CARES Act, passed by Congress earlier this year, provides benefits.
Those who are self-employed must file for regular Virginia unemployment benefits and be rejected to unlock the second step that enables them to receive CARES Act funds. The funds, of up to $600 per week, may be retroactive to the week ending April 4.
More information on how to apply is available on the VEC website here.
Many Virginia residents who own their own business have also applied for the Payroll Protection Program, which ran out of money Thursday before thousands of applications made it through local banks. The U.S. Congress is debating how and whether to provide more funds for that program through the Small Business Administration.
Emergency SBA loans for economic injury are also delayed several weeks due to the volume of applications.
