HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Dept. of Labor and Industry said Monday it is preparing for new CARES Act extensions for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, but cautioned that delays in approving the legislation by the federal government will cause a gap in benefits to more than 509,000 workers across the commonwealth.
“The CARES Act extensions will ensure Pennsylvania workers who have been affected by the global economic downturn caused by COVID-19 will continue to receive the unemployment support they desperately need for themselves and their families,” said acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier in a press release. “L&I began reviewing the legislation last week when it was first unveiled and will resume making payments for the PUA and PEUC programs as soon as we get approval from the federal Department of Labor to move forward.”
The PUA and PEUC programs, which expired last week, received extensions under the new legislation, L&I said. PUA assists workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 who are not eligible for other unemployment compensation programs. PEUC provides additional weeks of benefits to workers who have exhausted their Unemployment Compensation benefits. Together, these programs provided payments to more than half a million Pennsylvanians.
An additional program, Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, will provide eligible claimants with $300 per week on top of the weekly benefit amount he or she receives from certain other unemployment programs. FPUC previously provided $600 per week additional payments until the program ended in July.
While L&I has already begun reviewing the legislation and working with its unemployment system vendor to make programmatic changes to accommodate the extensions, L&I must receive guidance and approval from the U.S. Department of Labor (US DOL) before it can resume issuing payments through PUA, PEUC and FPUC.
Several weeks may pass before US DOL issues all the guidance needed for payments to resume for the CARES Act programs. Pennsylvanians are encouraged to seek other forms of assistance during the interim, the department said.
“We know Pennsylvania workers are relying on these programs to pay for essential needs so we are doing everything we can to begin resuming payments as quickly as we can after we receive more information from US DOL,” said Berrier. “We strongly encourage these Pennsylvanians to apply for other forms of benefits that can help them while we wait on the federal government to provide us with the guidance and permission we need to begin implementing the extensions.”
