Pennsylvania doles out half of federal $300 weekly benefit fund

Pennsylvania has distributed more than one-half of its allocation of $2.8 billion in federal money that is the source of the $300-a-week checks being sent to the eligible covid-19-related jobless, state officials said.

The state has sent $1.5 billion to unemployed Pennsylvanians through the federal government’s Lost Wages Assistance Program, which provides for $300-a-week checks for six weeks from the beginning of August through the week of Sept. 5, said state Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak. The money started flowing to out-of-state coffers about 10 days ago.

Many of the jobless who are eligible — if covid-19 cost them their jobs and they are receiving at least $100 a week in unemployment compensation — have gotten their money, Oleksiak said Monday.

Those who have yet to apply for the aid should do so as soon as possible because the state will not be getting more money in Lost Wages Assistance benefits. Workers still have time to certify with the state that they were unemployed in early August because of covid-19, said Susan Dickinson, director of the state’s unemployment compensation benefits policy.

But the state does not know how many of the unemployed have received the money, Dickinson said. That’s because the federal government counts the number of benefits claims processed, a little more than five million, and not the number of people receiving the benefits, she said.

If all of the eligible unemployed workers received a full six weeks of benefits, then about 830,000 jobless would have received the money. In August, the state reported that 650,000 were out of work, based on seasonal hiring factors.

The federal program the Trump administration instituted in early August was designed to replace the $600-a-week funding through the CARES Act that was passed in late March. But the Trump administration tapped the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the money and the state was notified on Sept. 9 that the money was gone. When Trump announced the program in August, he said the benefits would stop by the end of the year or until the fund is depleted.

Once the Trump administration declares it will no longer accept new claims, the state has 90 days to send the money to those eligible jobless, Dickinson said.