Pennsylvania unemployment claims total 2.4 million

More than 2.4 million people in Pennsylvania’s workforce have filed for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in mid-March, according to Jerry Oleksiak, Pennsylvania’s secretary of labor and industry.
In a weekly conference call with reporters Monday afternoon, he said that unemployed Pennsylvanians had received $12.2 billion in benefits over the last two-and-a-half months. Of that amount, $6.9 billion has come from regular unemployment compensation, $4.6 billion from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) fund, $748 million from Pennsylvania’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) fund and $9 million from the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) fund.
Oleksiak also said that 83% of Pennsylvania workers who have made claims since businesses were closed as a result of the pandemic have had their claims processed, this partially the result of a dramatic increase in the number of employees in the Office of Unemployment Compensation. In mid-March, there were 725 employees in that office, with the number now standing at 1,849. Some have been new hires, some are state employees that have been transferred from other departments and some are retirees that have come back into service.
Oleksiak also said an investigation is continuing into fraudulent unemployment claims that were uncovered before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, though he would not offer further elaboration. None of the commonwealth’s systems or data have been breached, he said, but the fraudulent claims have led to recipients of benefits from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance fund to receive paper checks rather than the funds being directly deposited into their accounts or debit cards being issued. This could result in a four-day delay in receiving the funds.
With parts of Pennsylvania having moved into the green phase and more to follow on Friday, Oleksiak said the labor and industry department is looking to see if particular sectors of the commonwealth’s economy have been bouncing back.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance helps workers who are self-employed and gig workers who would not otherwise be eligible for unemployment benefits; Pandemic Emergency Employment Compensation gives an additional 13 weeks of benefits to the unemployed; and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation provides an extra $600 per week for anyone receiving unemployment benefits.