New Pennsylvania program extends unemployment benefits

The state’s new Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program will allow some Pennsylvanians to continue receiving benefits after traditional unemployment expires.

The program is funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Unemployment benefits usually expire after 13 weeks. Unemployed Pennsylvanians whose benefits have run out, who are “able and available to work” but cannot because of the coronavirus pandemic, can apply for an additional 13 weeks through the state’s program, according to the department.

Recipients will be paid the same amount as they received on traditional unemployment, including the additional $600 a week provided by the federal government during the pandemic.

Applicants must apply online at uc.pa.gov/unemployment-­benefits or print an application from the website and mail it in.

Since March 15, the state Department of Labor and Industry has paid out more than $8.8 billion in unemployment benefits.

The unprecedented number of claims has swamped the department. In April of last year, Pennsylvanians filed about 393,000 unemployment claims. In April 2020, they filed nearly 3.9 million, an increase of 883%.

In response, the department hired additional employees, borrowed staffers from other state agencies and brought department veterans out of retirement.

There are about 1,200 people working to process unemployment claims in Pennsylvania, according to department Secretary Jerry Oleksiak.

“It has been a numbers issue, and we have responded as quickly and effectively as I think we can,” Oleksiak said in an online news conference Monday.

Allegheny County residents filed 390,070 claims in April. Westmoreland County residents filed 128,570.

The number of new claims has declined slowly since the mid-March peak but remains far above normal levels.

For the week ending March 15, there were about 376,000 new claims, Oleksiak said. For the week ending May 10, there were about 65,000.

“It has been declining, but 65,000 new claims is a tremendously high number of new claims compared to what we had been working with before the pandemic went into effect,” Oleksiak said.

In addition to traditional unemployment benefits and the new state program, the department introduced a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program last month, which provides benefits to self-employed people who are out of work. The department has received nearly 266,000 claims under that program.