The state of Tennessee has started paying approved unemployment claimants their first installment of the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefit, in addition to their Tennessee Unemployment Compensation (TUC) benefit.

On Tuesday, April 14, the state distributed benefit payments of close to $94 million to financial institutions for approximately 110,000 unemployed Tennesseans. Most claimants will receive their directly-deposited payment on Wednesday, April 15.

The number of payments is projected to increase throughout the week and will likely exceed 150,000.

During the entire previous week, the state sent 114,000 claimants more than $33 million in unemployment benefits. That week did not include the FPUC payment.

The federal CARES Act provides FPUC to all approved claimants currently receiving unemployment benefits.

The federal government considers both TUC and FPUC benefits taxable income. Claimants can choose to have those taxes automatically deducted or to pay them at a later date.

The benefit payment for the week starting April 13 contains one installment of FPUC, but the state will provide claimants retroactive pay to March 29 in upcoming payments.

Funding for FPUC comes from the federal government and does not impact the Tennessee Unemployment Trust Fund.