May 19, 2020 By Rick Shrum for The 3 min read

Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry launched another benefits program over the weekend, one that was a focus of L&I’s weekly webinar.

The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program allows 13 more weeks of regular Unemployment Compensation payments to state residents whose claim has expired, and to those who have an open claim but their benefits have been exhausted.

“This affects two groups,” Susan Dickinson, director of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy, said during a WebEx conference with the media. She was accompanied by L&I Secretary Jerry Oleksiak.

Dickinson said individuals with an active claim and no remaining benefits will, automatically, have the 13 weeks of PEUC benefits added. Those whose claims have expired must file an application online, or fill out and return the paper application the department is mailing.

To be eligible for the PEUC extension, an individual has to be unemployed between March 29 through Dec. 26, 2020; have used up regular state or federal benefits for the week ending July 6, 2019, or later; not be eligible for state or federal jobless benefits; and be able and available to work and actively seek work, except for COVID-19-related reasons such as illness, quarantine or stay-at-home orders.

Complaints about a 44-day email backlog and claims delays continue to besiege Labor & Industry, which has increased its staff to more than 1,000 through hirings, reassignments and bringing back retirees. “We’re facing an avalanche of claims,” said Oleksiak, whose department months ago was staffed and funded appropriately for low unemployment.

He said the UC staff has put in 80,000 hours of overtime over the past nine weeks. During that time, more than 2.1 million claims have been filed (1.9 million for regular UC, 266,000 for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program).

The department, according to the secretary, has paid $8.8 billion in state and federal benefits, $5.5 billion for UC.

L&I also had to ramp up its technology quickly. PUA was created in mid-March as an offshoot of the federal CARES Act, and the department had to install a separate online system to accommodate it. That system became fully serviceable only a couple of weeks ago to serve independent contractors, gig workers and other self-employed who normally cannot collect regular UC.

A PUA phone service is next. Dickinson said the department hopes to have it operating by week’s end.

Claims have decreased, Oleksiak said. There were 65,000 new claims filed the week of May 10, compared with 376,000 the week of March 15, when the coronavirus became pervasive in Pennsylvania. “But that’s still a tremendous number compared with the pre-COVID period.”

The two officials fielded questions about scams and fraud that could affect an unemployment benefits system. “I’ve heard about Washington state being hard hit (by scams),” Oleksiak said. “We’ve not had any problems yet.”

Dickinson said the department employs fraud-detection indicators and works with a multi-state national agency on that issue. “With so many claims, there’s going to be more fraud.”

Humans are not perfect, of course, and Dickinson said some claimants who are still awaiting jobless benefits may have simply made mistakes on their initial filings.

“It may be related to identification: putting a nickname instead of a formal name, putting the last name where the first should be. Some individuals may have provided the wrong separation information. Some may have reason to believe they will go back to work and don’t consider themselves to be separated, but if they’re not currently working, they are still separated.”