The Excluded Workers Fund (EWF) provides cash payments to workers who have suffered income loss due to COVID but who are not eligible for Unemployment Insurance or related Federal benefits due to their immigration status or other factors.

Affected workers must be low-income and provide sufficient documentation to establish work-related eligibility and residency in the state.

You can use your IDNYC Card to prove your identity and residency when applying for the EWF, even if your card is expired. While proving residency usually requires an unexpired, valid document, an IDNYC card that expired in 2020 and 2021 is considered valid for the purpose of the EWF application. 

Some of the ways you can prove your work history includes, but is not limited to:

• Records of the past three years of tax filing
• A letter from your employer

The EWF application portal is available online in 13 languages.

State-contracted community based organizations (CBOs) are also providing application assistance. You can search online or by phone for a CBO near you.

Online

Learn more and apply for the Excluded Workers Fund.

Find a community based organization providing EWF application assistance.

By Phone