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1.3 million Pennsylvanians file unemployment; self-employed to be able to file soon

Claimants should begin to receive an extra $600 per week within a couple of days

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Since March 15th, 1.3 million Pennsylvania have filed for unemployment benefits. The Department of Labor and Industry says, it continues to improve its department to address the needs of Pennsylvanians. The department has borrowed people from other agencies to assist with the high volume of calls and emails it's been getting. The Department of L&I receives about 15,000 emails and about 14,000 calls everyday. 

The Department of L&I says it is all caught up sending out PINs to claimants. If you haven't received one yet, they say not to panic. It could still be in transit by USPS to you. If you do need to call UC, they recommend calling later in the week to avoid the Monday and Tuesday high call volumes. 

"People who have delays in getting pins or trouble contacting us will not loose benefits," said Department Secretary W. Gerard Oleksiak."Their benefits will be backdated to when they were officially unemployed."

Pennsylvanians receiving unemployment benefits will begin to receive the extra $600 of Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) under the CARES Act within the next couple of days, according to the Department of L&I. 

RELATED: 5 benefits from the CARES Act you need to know about besides the stimulus check

"What you're going to do is just file normally, you're going to get paid normally with your regular benefits," said Susan Dickinson, Department of Labor & Industry Office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy Director. "Then you'll receive you FPUC benefits in approximately one week later." 

Self-employed, gig workers, and independent contractors will soon be able to file unemployment. The department says it plans to have separate application for those folks on its website in about two weeks. 

"We want to make sure everyone understands if they are a self-employed individual, someone interested in this program: Please do not file a regular claim right now because it's going to be a completely separate application," said Dickinson.

The Department of L&I says, it recently launched a COVID19 job hiring portal to help Pennsylvanians find jobs during this pandemic. Employers hiring immediately can be found here.

RELATED: State Dept. of Labor & Industry opens new COVID-19 job portal to serve residents looking for work

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