Federal unemployment aid now available in Florida.

Unemployed Floridians regained access this week to extra money from the federal government.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity installed technology needed to distribute benefits to the unemployed under a so-called Lost Wages Assistance program.

President Donald Trump authorized the money by executive order after Congress failed to agree on a deal to revive payments under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security Act, which provided $600 a week in addition to state benefits. Those federal payments stopped at the end of July.

Trump’s order authorized $300 a week to be drawn from federal disaster funds overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

To be eligible, the DEO said, people “must have a weekly benefit amount of at least $100 in an approved re-employment assistance program and must certify that they are unemployed or partially unemployed due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19.”

The money is for those who are eligible for state benefits for weeks of unemployment ending on or after Aug. 1. The agency said the payments are starting this week for the weeks ending Aug. 1, 8, and 15.

As of Tuesday, the DEO said it had paid nearly $15.8 billion in state and federal benefits to 1,954,846 people since midMarch. A majority of the money has come from federal programs.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has also directed the DEO to continue waiv

ing the work search and work registration requirements for those on unemployment for an additional 90 days. The requirements will continue to be waived through Dec. 5.

The so-called “waiting week” that delayed initial payments to firsttime applicants is also waived through Dec. 5.