Tennessee starts paying unemployment claims installments

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The state of Tennessee has started paying the first installments of unemployment claims under the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefit and Tennessee Unemployment Compensation benefits, according to a news release.

The release says the state distributed $600 payments on Tuesday, with nearly $94 million going to the financial institutions of about 110,000 unemployed residents across Tennessee, the release says.

The release says most people will receive those direct deposits on Wednesday, April 15.

The number of payments is expected to increase and will likely exceed 150,000 residents, according to the release.

The release says last week, 114,000 claimants received more than $33 million in unemployment benefits, but that did not include that FPUC payments.

The CARES Act provides FPUC to all approved residents currently receiving unemployment, though the government does consider both unemployment and pandemic unemployment as taxable income, according to the release.

Benefit payments for this week contain one installment of the pandemic unemployment payment, but the release says the state will provide retroactive pay to March 29 in the coming weeks.