L&I receives word on approval of $300 weekly UC payment program
Thus far, state Labor & Industry secretary Jerry Oleksiak has been out of luck on Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation.
And he isn’t pleased.
Pennsylvania made its pitch Friday to join the Lost Wages Assistance program, established two weeks ago by President Donald Trump to provide a federally funded weekly payment of $300 to workers unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic. States have the option to kick in another $100 per week from state funds.
“We don’t have the state funds for it,” Oleksiak said.
That $300 – or $400 – will replace the FPUC program, which ended nationwide in late July and provided an extra $600 a week to those who were already receiving unemployment compensation. The LWA program, however, may take a while to launch in Pennsylvania and is not expected to last long.
“The governor (Tom Wolf) and I are asking Congress to extend the $600 program, but there’s been no congressional solution,” Oleksiak said Monday afternoon, during L&I’s weekly WebEx news conference. That is a sentiment he and Wolf had expressed previously.
Oleksiak laments the D.C. deadlock. An extension not only would benefit those who are jobless because of a global outbreak, but would limit the stress on his department, whose computer system was adapted to accommodate the $600 disbursements. A switchover to LWA payments, though, would require another new system, on top of the one L&I installed in the spring for the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
This could take weeks and delay the distribution of funds. Payments are to be retroactive to Aug. 1.
Labor & Industry has paid out more than $25 billion in unemployment benefits since March 15, so there is concern about its UC trust fund. The fund had a healthy $3.4 billion pre-pandemic, but that figure has dwindled to $543.5 million – down $13.1 million from a week ago.
Oleksiak said, however, the department has secured federal loans to “bolster” the fund, and should receive initial funding in early September.
L&I will have its 14th weekly town hall at 1 p.m. Thursday.
It is open to the public, calling 833-380-0719 or visiting https://access.live/PAlabor.