Workers idled by Allegheny closures can reopen UC claims

The rise to unprecedented highs in positive COVID-19 cases last week forced Allegheny County to impose a one-week closure of bars, restaurants, casinos and other activities involving 25 or more people.
For many, it was deja vu – a return to the more restrictive red and yellow phases of shutdown aimed at mitigating spread of the coronavirus. For employees of these facilities, it was double deja vu – seeking a second round of unemployment benefits.
Losing work, returning to it and losing it again – all within four months – was a topic discussed Monday afternoon during the state Department of Labor & Industry’s weekly WebEx news conference. What is the process for workers affected by this closure, which could be extended if infection numbers remain high?
“Reopen their claims online, our staff will process them and they’ll be ready to go ” advised Susan Dickinson, L&I’s unemployment compensation benefits policy director.
“Unemployment claims are good for a calendar year. If you opened a claim in March, it’s good until next March and you’ll likely have more benefits there.”
If regular UC benefits run out, Dickinson added, claimants may be eligible for federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, then possibly for nine to 13 weeks of pay through L&I’s Extended Benefits program.
Statistics can be misleading, and L&I secretary Jerry Oleksiak said the department is updating its procedures this week for compiling COVID-19-related figures. “We want to make sure the number of applications are accurate,” he said. He estimated that figure at a little less than two million.
He said there has been an uptick in the amount of reopened UC cases, “but nowhere near” the number of initial applications when the pandemic began to pound Pennsylvania in March and April. Oleksiak said supersectors hit the hardest have been hospitality and leisure (restaurants, bars, hotels) and manufacturing.
He again updated the continuously growing volume of UC statistics. Since March 15, the department has paid $23.7 billion in unemployment benefits; $10.2 billion through traditional UC; and $10.6 billion through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which pays an extra $600 per week to Pennsylvanians receiving jobless benefits. (That federal program will end July 25, unless the federal government extends it.)
L&I will have its seventh weekly town hall – open to the public – at 1 p.m. Thursday. To participate, online or by telephone, visit https://access.live/PAlabor or call 833-380-0719.