Dec 1, 2020 3 min read

As coronavirus cases continue to rise across Pennsylvania, so does the angst of residents collecting unemployment compensation benefits from two federal programs.

Those lifelines – Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation – will expire Dec. 26. Both were created in late March through the federal CARES Act, and have provided much-needed relief to eligible claimants who lost work because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many had hoped for an extension of PUC and PEUC benefits, or the formation of new programs to take their place, but Congress has been unable to agree on a stimulus bill. As a result, an estimated 12 million people nationwide will lose those benefits by year’s end.

“We continue to advocate for additional support,” state Labor & Industry secretary Jerry Oleksiak said Monday afternoon, during L&I’s weekly virtual news conference.

The PUA program, in recent months, has been inundated by fraud cases in multiple states – including Pennsylvania. But it also has been a financial resource for many idled workers who are typically ineligible for traditional UC, including independent contractors and gig workers.

PUA claimants are especially commonplace in the Keystone State.

Susan Dickinson, L&I’s UC benefits policy director, said when the pandemic hit, “probably about half” – about 2.2 million – of the new UC applicants were seeking PUA payments.

Overpayments to claimants also has been an issue, especially in the PUA program, Dickinson said. She added there have been about 11,000 such cases in Pennsylvania.

“We ask that individuals pay back in a lump sum or receive reductions in future benefits,” she said.

Part-time work was another discussion topic. Dickinson said some claimants who have accepted part-time jobs, or plan to work part time during the holidays, may be surprised their UC payments have been reduced or denied. She advises them to use the part-time calculator of L&I’s website to determine how their earning will affect their benefit amounts.

L&I’s website can be accessed at uc.pa.gov.

This was Oleksiak’s final news conference. He will retire Friday, to spend more time at home and with his five grandchildren. Jennifer Berrier, deputy secretary for Safety and Labor-Management Relations at L&I, will be the acting secretary.

“I want to thank the 5,000 or so employees at Labor & Industry who have been here during my three-plus years in the jobs,” said Oleksiak, who previously was president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, and a longtime special education instructor in Upper Merion Area School District in eastern Pennsylvania.

As for the numbers: Since March 15, L&I has distributed more than $31.5 billion in total UC benefits, including $6.1 billion in regular benefits and $26 billion through CARES Act programs.