Unemployment Information -Apply Friday - MBMTE Meeting

Update - Maryland Will Open

Unemployment Applications for ICs and Sole Proprietors on Friday April 24th

Monday, April 20, 2020

Hi Everyone,

For today's update we want to share with you more information about applying for Unemployment as an Independent Contractor or Sole Proprietor. Applications open in the entirely new system on Friday.

We also continue to work with the Maryland Board of Massage Therapy Examiners MBMTE to enact some changes in requirements for this renewal period. They meet on Wednesday morning and our requests are on the top of the agenda.

Finally, we have updates on some of the business aid programs from SBA and Maryland and are curious about what your experience has been. Anyone receive aid?

Governor Hogan had another press conference today, the focus is on expanding testing, something that is critically important to get the economy open again. He announced that Maryland has secured 500,000 tests from South Korea. That is an exponential increase.

We hope you are well and finding your way through this crisis, how you are doing?

Take care,

Amelia

Board Member and Government Relations Chair

for

Sabrina, David, Lee, and Mark

Your AMTA-Maryland Chapter Board

Unemployment Applications open Friday

Senator Sarah Elfreth's office provided this excellent summary, for ease we are sharing it here.

Beginning April 17th eligible Marylanders will begin seeing their additional $600 per week payment. This payment is on top of current regular benefits and will be received on the day of your next regularly scheduled payment. If you do not regularly receive your benefit payment on Friday, you will not see this payment today. Marylanders will receive benefits retroactive to their earliest date of eligibility.

FRIDAY, April 24, Labor is launching a new one-stop unemployment insurance application to allow ALL newly eligible Marylanders to file ALL types of claims entirely online.

Those who are eligible for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, including those who are self-employed, independent contractors, gig economy workers, and have insufficient work history, will be able to file online using the new application.

Individuals who were previously required to file by phone, like federal employees, members of the military, those who have worked in multiple states, and have worked for more than 3 employers in the last 18 months, will also be able to file online using the new application.

New and existing claimants will automatically receive an additional 13 weeks of benefits under the CARES Act. Those who have recently exhausted their benefits will be able to reapply online using the new application.

In addition to reassigning over 150 state employees and hiring 100 new employees, Labor has partnered with a vendor to bring in 200 additional call and claim takers.

Starting on April 18, Labor's claim centers will be open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

All the details about this update can be found here: http://labor.maryland.gov/whatsnews/uipuc.shtml

Applicants who have signed up to receive notification all got a really hard to read email on this topic, what is essential is that you head to MDunemployment.com on Friday and get your claim going!

MD LICENSE RENEWAL AND CE REQUIREMENTS

As we have shared, AMTA-MD has asked the Maryland Board of Massage Therapy Examiners to formally extend the renewal deadline for a year and to reduce or eliminate CE and CPR requirements.

The MBMTE will meet again on Wednesday 4/22 - details on the link below. The published agenda shows that there will be continued discussion on the requests that AMTA-MD proposed last month and are hopeful that some changes can be made.

It is important to remember that the Board may not have statutory power over everything we would like to change. We will discover more on Wednesday.

AMTA-MD has also reached out to some of our allies in the Maryland Legislature to ask for their guidance and support. If such changes need to be made by the Governor or legislature, we have initiated that process.

Link to the Maryland Board of Massage Therapy Examiners.

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE AID?

Unfortunately, what we are seeing is that most of the aid programs, for both loans and grants have received far more applications than they have funds to cover.

At this time most of the programs have been closed to new applications. You will need to investigate for your own circumstances individually.

Speaking with other MTs, some who are business owners have received funds or have been approved for loans with the SBA, many more have not heard back yet.

We have not heard any news on the Maryland Grants and Loans.

Please share your news - what have you applied for - what news have you received?