incredible people, places, and food of Pa. every Friday. PUA is a special unemployment program created by the federal coronavirus. HARRISBURG, Pa. Pennsylvania's Department of Labor & Industry announced it is putting additional anti-fraud and identification measures in place for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Unemployment compensation, PUA payments may be delayed, Pa. Department of Labor & Industry says. 2) Claimants who have filed for the week of Jan. 2 and 9th before the extensions were in place and did not receive payment. Step 2: Willis says, try to get someone on the phone if you can, "Emails take weeks to get a response. Because EB is a state program, it was unaffected by the expiration and extension of the federal coronavirus relief bill. L&I began issuing payments on Jan. 8 after receiving the necessary guidance from the federal Department of Labor. Pennsylvania's Department of Labor & Industry announced it is putting additional anti-fraud and identification measures in place for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program following a spike in suspicious applications. The Century Foundation In a response to Pittsburgh's Action News 4, a representative from L & I wrote: The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry has made more than $33.1 billion in unemployment program payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, following a new federal funding package, it took the state and GSI weeks to set up new rules associated with federal benefits. Instructions on how to return the money are available at the Office of Unemployment compensation website. As a result, the delay presented states with major implementation challenges and unanswered questions about how to properly pay benefits that were due within six days of the president signing the legislation. Over three days, the department received nearly 50,000 claims three times higher than normal. >> MY JOB WASN'T GETTING ME HOURS. The Century Foundation takes your data security and privacy seriously. This also applies to benefits received from Extended Benefits (EB), PUA, and PEUC. THEY TELL ME THEIR DELAYS ARE MAINLY DUE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S DELAYS IN EXTENDING THE CARES ACT AND IN ISSUING GUIDANCE TO STATES. To access account information such as overpayments, appeal status, documents and more, log in to the PUA . L&I is working to complete reprogramming of the PUA system to accommodate these changes and has turned off claimants' ability to file for weeks after the expiration of the original program. The new relief bill extends those "boost" payments until Sept. 6, 2021. There have been 28 million PUA claims in Pennsylvania totaling more than $5 billion in payments since March, according to the department. FOR AMANDA, WHO HAS NOT RECEIVED AN UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS FOR -- CHECK FOR NEARLY THREE WEEKS, JUST GETTING SOMEONE ON THE PHONE TO ASK WHY HAS BEEN A STRUGGLE. Philadelphia Legal Assistance has made an online form to make things easier for you. If you think that you could be a Victim of Crime, help is available. The PA Department of Labor and Industry also touched on ongoing problems facing the PUA and PEUC programs. 2023, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WGAL-TV. You can begin filing for the additional 11 claim weeks today, January 22. journalism from across Pa. PA Post (Daily): Top news every weekday THESE PEOPLE ARE USUALLY GIG WORKERS, FREELANCERS, OR SELF-EMPLOYED. Other EB claimants have been receiving payments as normal. Claimants who exhaust their 26 weeks of payments roll over to the PEUC program, and then the EB program. Its estimated that about 400,000 Pennsylvanians are relying on the PUA benefits. The duplicate payments totaled $280 million. "The bad behavior of these scammers is hurting Pennsylvanians, and we are continuing to work with the Pennsylvania Attorney General, U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters. and our The additional $300 in unemployment benefits being paid in Pennsylvania are set to expire this weekend. Pennsylvania officials respond to delay in unemployment benefits, ANSWERS? That's why we want you to know that, when you visit our website, we use technologies like cookies to collect anonymized data so that we can better understand and serve our audience. State officials first publicly mentioned the mistake during a July 20 news conference with reporters. The federal government did not complete the extension until Dec. 27, and L&I has been delayed in restarting payments for the three federal programs by the federal Department of Labor, which did not issue all of the guidance needed to ensure states are following the federal law when making payments for the federal programs until Jan. 11. I sent one on 1/5 and didn't get a reply until 1/20. In these states, jobless workers have been left with few answers, as they are forced to go without aid because of the stop-and-start nature of pandemic programs. "It allows us to investigate and alert the IRS of any necessary corrections of income", ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO'S BEEN THROUGH IT. You can request a waiver if you are unable to pay back the overpayment due to financial hardship. The Department of Labor apologized for the delays on its Facebook page. In 2008 when the banks fucked over the economy (greed) the unemployed got a minimum of 99 weeks of benefits. >> IT'S HARD. As of now, these claimants will not need to refile for the weeks ending Jan. 2, 9, or 16, because L&I will process the filed claims once the issue is corrected.You tried to file before the PUA . That number more than quadrupled last Friday, reaching more than 20,000. 2023, Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of WGAL-TV. Gennifer Spangler, a former warehouse manager for an online craft supply store, said logging in and filing a claim was super easy. She said the new system was more user-friendly, with a dashboard that made it easy to find and update information. For more information, please see our L&I rectified the issue and reissued the payments to claimants a few days later. AND NOT -- WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT RECEIVING OUR MONEY. Please enter your city, county, or zip code. Cool and windy Tuesday, then a huge temp rebound through the end of the week! who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. AND MENTALLY THIS WHOLE PANDEMIC -- IT JUST CRUSHES YOU. I was so afraid for this to happen today, said Donna Pfitzenmeyer Swangler, who moderates a Pennsylvania Unemployment Support Group on Facebook with more than 12,000 members. "The bad behavior of these scammers is hurting Pennsylvanians, and we are continuing to work with the Pennsylvania Attorney General, U.S. Will you do your part today by making a contribution? There is just more potential for issues and different things to arise. The program expired the claim week ending Dec. 26 and an extension was signed Dec. 27. This is money that these workers and their families needed to pay rent, put food on the table, stay out of poverty, and keep Americas economy running while they looked for work. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, there are several reasons for the delay, depending on the situation. With gratitude, Unemployment Compensation is a state program that provides up to 26 weeks of payments to eligible claimants who are able and available to work but have lost their jobs for qualifying reasons. The Department of Labor and Industry released the following statement Friday, Jan. 22:"Today, Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier announced that payments for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program in the new federal CARES Act extension are resuming. The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Colorado, for example, has not been able to pay out FPUC, PUA, or PEUC to any claimants because its entire system has been down for maintenance, although it recently announced it will allow claimants to reopen their existing PUA and PEUC on February 1, more than a month after the programs were extended. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider taking the step of supporting Spotlight PAs journalism either one time, or with a monthly gift. L&I is doing everything possible to minimize delays while working under the constraints created by the federal government. Andrew Stettner was the director of workforce policy and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, focusing on modernizing workforce protections and social insurance programs. Tags: unemployment benefits, us economy, covid-19. Senator Casey said, Now that the Senate has passed the American rescue plan, the country is one step closer to putting the virus behind us. 'We know that more than 400,000 Pennsylvanians and their families are relying on these PUA benefits to get through this terrible pandemic and have worked as quickly as possible to complete the implementation and resume payments. Within the first 12 hours of the launch, more than 62,000 Pennsylvanians had filed claims and the Department of Labor & Industry deemed the new system a success. BUT THEY SAY THEY ARE NOW ISSUING PAYMENTS. "We are still currently working on that issue but we are making progress," said Berrier. Moreover, an additional twelve states took three weeks or more to start up the payment of PUA, and fifteen states needed three weeks or more to reup PEUC. THE STATE SAYS IF YOU HAVE NOT FILED CLAIMS BEFORE AND ARE PLANNING TO DO SO FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2021, YOU CANNOT FILE YET AND THE STATE WILL NOTIFY YOU WHEN YOU CAN. L&I urged the federal government beginning in November to extend the CARES Act as soon as possible to prevent gaps or delays in unemployment program benefits to claimants. - If you received a 1099 G tax form, but never filed or received unemployment compensation, the PA Department of Labor and Industry is warning you that you could be a victim of identity fraud. "We are doing everything we can to resolve this issue as quickly as possible," said Jennifer Berrier, Acting Secretary of the PA Labor and Industry. Tuesday payments will be available on Wednesday, March 10. L&I apologizes to these claimants for the inconvenience of the delayed payments. 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