Pennsylvania to jobless: $300 checks from feds could be weeks away

Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs when covid-19 slammed the economy probably will have to wait weeks before they see a weekly $300 check the Trump administration promised as a replacement for the extra $600 a week they had been receiving until late July, state officials said Monday.

The state has not been able to estimate how changes in the federal benefits program, with the amount cut in half and the money being drawn from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and not the U.S. Department of Labor, will affect distribution to unemployed Pennsylvanians, said Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak. It may require building a new computer system for distributing the unemployment compensation under the newly-created Lost Wage Assistance Program, he said.

“It will hinge on the final guidance from the federal government,” Oleksiak said.

Oleksiak, appointed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, repeated his call for Republicans in Congress “to make it simple and extend the $600” weekly benefit. House Democrats passed a Heroes Act that would extend the $600 weekly benefits until March 2021 to anyone receiving jobless compensation as of January. The bill stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate, and President Trump unilaterally decided on Aug. 8 to institute the weekly $300 jobless aid.

FEMA announced Monday that Pennsylvania has been approved to receive money for the $300 weekly benefit. Pennsylvania is one of 29 states to share in the $44 billion earmarked for the program.

Susan Dickinson, director of policy for the state’s unemployment benefits program, said the benefits will be retroactive to Aug. 1.

The FEMA announcement said the agency will work with state officials to create a system for distributing the money.

To get the money, those jobless from covid-19 slowdowns must already be receiving $100 in benefits from state unemployment insurance or other jobless compensation programs, Oleksiak said.

Determining which workers lost their jobs because of covid-19 and which ones did not may be difficult, said Christopher Briem, regional economist for the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research.

“That’s going to be hard to determine,” Briem said.

State officials could consider all those Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs since February’s unemployment rate was 4.7% with 309,000 out of work, as being caused by covid-19, Briem said. The state’s July jobless rate was 13.7 % rate with 886,000 unemployed workers.