Pandemic unemployment program reboot creates confusion in Pennsylvania

Paul Guggenheimer | Tuesday, January 26, 2021 2:04 p.m.

Tribune-Review

When the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry announced state residents were eligible to file for an additional 11 weeks of Unemployment Compensation, thousands flocked to the online portal. But they didn’t have much luck there.

With a new federal CARES Act extension in place, payments for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program were set to resume Monday. However, many state residents attempting to reapply for those pandemic unemployment benefits said the online system wouldn’t let them.

“There is conflicting information on the PA UC website, as some areas say something will be mailed to recipients and to wait for receipt of that, some areas say ‘your claim is inactive — you must reactivate your claim to file,’ ” said Kimberly Snyder of Baden. “So, there seems to be a lot of confusion over this.”

On Tuesday, Department of Labor & Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said L&I identified and fixed the issue experienced by PEUC claimants who were not being offered claim weeks since they last filed for benefits Dec. 26. Claimants in the PEUC program had been unable to file for claims ending after Dec. 26 because of the federal government failing to finalize the extension of the federal CARES Act until Dec. 27.

Other problems persist with Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) payments that are part of the latest federal stimulus package. They have been delayed for weeks, as L&I has worked to update its computer system to meet new federal requirements.

“We understand the frustration of the claimants who’ve been waiting for their payments to resume,” Berrier said. “We are frustrated, too, and are working to make it right. Our team resolved the PEUC issue last evening and is identifying and fixing PUA issues as quickly as we can. We will provide regular PUA updates until the issues are resolved.”

L&I has received reports of a variety of issues with filing PUA claims, including slow website or website pages that fail to load because of a high amount of website traffic, Berrier said. On Monday, she said L&I implemented a “waiting room” for claimants attempting to enter the PUA website during high-traffic periods, which has prevented issues with the PUA website becoming overwhelmed.