Payments for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in the new federal CARES Act extension are resuming.
“Since the federal legislation for the new CARES Act extension was unveiled, L&I’s dedicated team has been working tirelessly to update our processing systems,” said Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier. “We know that more than 400,000 Pennsylvanians and their families are relying on these PUA benefits to get through this terrible pandemic and have worked as quickly as possible to complete the implementation and resume payments.”
PUA assists workers who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and are not typically eligible for other unemployment compensation programs. This includes gig workers, freelancers, and self-employed workers.
Below is important information for claimants:
– You can begin filing for the additional 11 claim weeks today, Jan. 22
– Follow the same process as before to log onto your dashboard and claim the additional weeks, which will be added to your account
– You must file by Jan. 29; if you miss this deadline, you will need to email ucpua@pa.gov to request backdating
– You will be able to file for the weeks of Jan. 2, 9, 16 and 23
– If you no longer had claim weeks or did not file for the week ending Dec. 26, for any reason, you MUST REOPEN your claim before you can proceed; to do this, log onto your dashboard and click on the link to reopen a claim
– If you tried to open a new claim while the PUA program was inactive, you will have error codes that the UC staff must mix before you can proceed; please be patient while staff works to resolve your issues
– If you are a new, first-time PUA claimant opening a claim in 2021, you cannot yet file; L&I is still adding 2020 as a base wage year in the system and will notify you when you are able to file for benefits
– You will automatically receive the extra $300 weekly Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation – you do not need to take any action to get this boost
Claimants who have questions about their enrollment in PUA should email ucpua@pa.gov.
The original CARES Act programs, including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), expired at the end of December. L&I is in the final stages of the PEUC implementation and will be providing an update to those claimants very soon.
