Excluded workers in New York have spent a full year and a half without receiving any of the benefits from the stimulus programs passed by Congress. 

When the state budget passed this spring, there was hope for these hundreds of thousands of workers: a $2.1 billion fund that would provide benefits of as much as $15,600 per worker. 

But critics say this first-of-its-kind fund may fail to help anyone because of some burdensome requirements put in place by the Cuomo administration.   

One of the fund’s leading advocates, State Senator Jessica Ramos, discussed the issue with Capital Tonight.

“We’ve been working with the Department of Labor, diligently, towards an August launch for the Excluded Workers program, meaning that excluded workers would be able to apply online for this program,” Ramos said.

The launch date is scheduled for August 1.

Ramos explained that advocates have been waiting to see the kind of documentation workers will need to provide to gain access to the fund. 

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the Department of Labor will be able to give access to so many New Yorkers who really need this money,” Ramos said. “They’re trying to make it harder to apply, not easier.”

Ramos said that many excluded workers, some of them undocumented, haven’t been able to recover any of their lost wages for the past 18 months.

Part of the problem? Those who work for cash have no documentation.

“A lot of New York’s economy relies on the cash economy, and this was a big reason why people didn’t qualify for unemployment insurance in the first place,” Ramos said. “This is something we desperately have to fix in order to get New York’s economy on the right track.”