Unemployment Help

Those workers or business owners who temporarily or permanently lose their jobs due to the disaster may can get financial help. The N.C. Employment Security Commission offers Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) for those in federally-declared counties whose jobs or businesses were impacted by damage from the disaster. Workers or business owners meeting the following may be able to get these benefits:

• People who are unemployed due to the disaster, and do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance benefits;
• Self-employed people and small business owners who lost income due to the disaster;
• People who were kept from working due to an injury caused by the disaster;
• People who have become the major supplier of household income due to the disaster-related death or injury of the previous major supplier of household income;
• People who are not able to get to their job or self-employment location because they must travel through the affected area and are stopped from doing so by the disaster; or
• People who were to begin a job or self-employment but were stopped by the disaster.

DUA is funded entirely by the federal government and is not available in every disaster.