Pennsylvania announced on August 25 that the state will receive $1.5 billion in federal funding for unemployment assistance, from the 'Lost Wages Assistance' program that has been carved out of federal emergency disaster funds. This funding will provide an additional $300 for unemployed workers to replace the $600 per week supplemental benefit that expired at the end of July and has not been renewed by federal legislators.
The additional benefit will be retroactive to August 1, 2020. Payments will be made for a minimum of three weeks, and are set to expire on December 27, 2020. The program is not yet set up to receive applications, as the state is working to create a system to track it - this program must be kept and tracked separately from other unemployment funding streams.
To qualify for the $300 benefit, workers must also be receiving at least $100 from one of these state programs:
- regular unemployment compensation;
- the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of compensation to individuals who have exhausted their benefits;
- the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides unemployment benefits to gig workers, people who are self-employed and individuals who were not previously eligible;
- extended benefits, a Pennsylvania program which provides additional weeks to individuals who have exhausted their benefits;
- short-time compensation or shared work; or
- trade readjustment allowance.
Pennsylvania receives $1.5B to supplement unemployment benefits (Post-Gazette)
From the article: "President Donald Trump pushed the program through with an executive order after talks in Congress over extending unemployment benefit supplements fell apart. Now, the president is seeking to set aside $44 billion in previously approved disaster aid to help states maintain the supplemental jobless benefits."
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