SACRAMENTO – The California Employment Development Department (EDD) is alerting workers and self-employed individuals who suffered work losses because of the Valley Fire in Lake County or the Butte Fire in Calaveras County that the deadline for filing claims for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) is Oct. 26.

DUA provides temporary unemployment benefits to a wide range of people who lost their jobs or had work hours cut as a direct result of the fires but are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.

DUA applies to losses beginning the week of Sept. 6, 2015.

Eligible workers can receive benefits of as much as $450 a week for up to 28 weeks.

Workers eligible for DUA include:

– The self-employed and business owners who cannot operate their businesses.
– Workers who have exhausted their regular UI benefits.
– People who cannot reach work because of the fire.
– People who cannot work because they suffered a fire-related injury.
– Workers whose worksite was damaged or destroyed.
– Employees of a business that received most of its revenue from another entity that was damaged or destroyed in the disaster.
– Newly hired workers who were prevented from beginning work.
– People who became the head of their households because of a death caused by the disaster.
– Workers who did not earn enough money to qualify for regular benefits.
– People who were unable to qualify for a regular state funded unemployment claim.

President Obama’s federal disaster declaration of Sept. 22 opened the way for DUA.

Self-employed individuals filing DUA claims must provide evidence of self-employment, such as tax returns and business records that can be obtained from banks or government entities, or affidavits from individuals having knowledge of their business.

The fastest and easiest way for people to apply for DUA is to use EDD’s online application, “eApply4UI,” at https://eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov/ .

The application is available in both English and Spanish.

Claimants can also file for DUA by phone between 8 a.m. and 12 noon, Monday through Friday:

– English: 1-800-300-5616;
– Spanish: 1-800-326-8937;
– Chinese (Cantonese): 1-800-547-3506;
– Chinese (Mandarin): 1-866-303-0706;
– Vietnamese: 1-800-547-2058.