Game Worker Hardship Fund

Game workers have been facing unprecedented layoffs for the past 5 years. United Videogame Workers is launching a hardship fund to help workers across the US and Canada that have been impacted by these layoffs.

Are you a game worker in need of support?

 

Who is eligible to apply for this fund?

This fund is for game workers in the US and Canada impacted by record layoffs & other hardships in the games industry within the timeframe of January 2024 to the present.

You are eligible to apply whether you work at AAA, mobile, indie studios, and whether you are a full-time, part time, or contract worker. You are also eligible to apply whether you have been directly laid off, lost work as a freelancer or contractor, or been impacted by layoffs in some other way. The primary use of this fund would be to request assistance with unavoidable expenses like groceries, rent, medical costs, etc. 

Do I have to be a member of United Videogame Workers to apply?

No, you do not need to be a member of uvw-cwa or a union member to apply for this fund.

Are there any ways to donate to this fund?

For people who want to support this initiative financially, if you are a game worker in the US or Canada, you can join United Videogame Workers and get involved in the fight to organize our industry. This fund comes directly from our membership dues and as we grow our membership, it enables us to take on more ambitious initiatives to improve our industry in the coming years.

There is also an itch.io charity bundle being organized by Necrosoft games that will go live later this month. 100% of the funds raised from that bundle will go towards increasing the hardship fund and supporting more game workers.

We do not currently have a way to donate directly to the hardship fund. We are looking into options and will provide an update when we have more information on that. In the meantime, we would recommend reaching out to [email protected] if you have additional questions about donations. In the future, if direct donations are made available they will be set up through a donation page on Action Network. Unlike charities, donations made to labor organizations such as our union are not considered tax deductible.

How does applying for this fund work?

In order to apply for this fund, fill out the application form. A team of volunteers from uvw-cwa will review your application and prioritize it based on need. If an application requires further clarification, we will reach out to you. You may be asked to provide additional supporting evidence and to chat with an application reviewer. You will receive an email confirming whether or not you have been approved for funds. After receiving funds, we will reach out in order to document your experiences for an impact report we will make public towards the end of the year.

We have two application streams that you can specify, a Small Funds Tier for requests under USD $1000, and a Major Expenses Tier for requests between USD $1000 - 5000. The Major Expenses Tier will require a lengthier verification process on our end.

When can I expect to hear back?

We plan to get back to applicants in batches depending on the urgency of the request. You should expect to be contacted to be given next steps in 2-3 weeks after submitting your application. If your request for assistance would require us to review your application in a shorter timeframe we recommend also sending an email to [email protected] so we can ensure it gets flagged as urgent. If you have not heard back from us in 2-3 weeks after submitting an application, we also recommend sending an email to [email protected] follow up with us.

If I receive funds, will I have to pay taxes on it?

Currently, we recommend assuming that any hardship funds you receive will be counted as taxable income. We are getting more details on that and if we can confirm otherwise on our end, we will update fund recipients with that information.

Can I still apply if I haven't been laid off?

We encourage any game workers who have experienced hardship related to these layoffs to apply for this fund, even if they have not directly been laid off. We will be prioritizing the allocation of funds based on need and urgency.

Why is this limited to the US & Canada?

As a US and Canada based union, we are not well equipped to distribute hardship funds to workers in other countries. If any games labor organizations are interested in setting up a similar initiatives to cover other regions and have any questions about doing so, please let us know!

How Long Will This Fund Be Open?

We are planning to keep the fund active as long as we have remaining hardship funds to distribute. We will be reviewing the capacity for our application review team at the end of this month in order to make sure that is feasible on our end. It is possible we may close new applications for periods of time in order to ensure we have sufficient budget allocated for the fund or in order to allow us to process any remaining applications in a timely manner.

Can I use AI to apply for this fund?

No. AI Submissions will be rejected. During application review, AI use would also not be considered an appropriate use of hardship funds.

Are there other resources I can apply to, besides this fund?

We cannot guarantee that any individual application will be granted funds, so we encourage people impacted by layoffs to make use of any financial assistance you can in addition to this fund such as state unemployment benefits, SNAP, COBRA, etc. We've included some links to other forms of assistance below: