L&I focuses on system outage, $300 benefit
All systems are go – and have been go since Sunday evening – with the state’s unemployment compensation websites.
Those systems being down temporarily roused concerns during the state Labor & Industry’s weekly WebEx news conference Monday afternoon. L&I secretary Jerry Oleksiak and Susan Dickinson, the UC Benefits policy director, said this was a national or global issue, and that L&I’s UC websites were functional again later in the day.
Sites that were down Sunday prevented claimants from seeking benefits for regular Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation. The outage caused a measure of consternation, though, in light of the ongoing national investigation that stems from fraudulent use of the PUA system months earlier.
“It’s an active crime investigation, so I can’t get into details,” Oleksiak said. “We’re making progress on this. We’ve seen PUA applications decrease.”
That was one of two focuses during the half-hour virtual session. The other is Pennsylvania’s pending entrance into the Lost Wages Assistance program, which President Donald Trump established three weeks ago. It is to provide a federally funded weekly payment of $300 to workers unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic. States have the option to add another $100 per week from state funds, but Pennsylvania is among a bevy of states that don’t have the funds to do so.
That $300 – or $400 – will replace the weekly $600 payment UC recipients were receiving from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which ended in late July. For Pennsylvania to switch to LWA benefits, however, L&I will have to install a new computer system, which the secretary hopes to be in operation before the end of September. Claimants cannot apply until after that occurs, meaning benefits will be delayed.
Oleksiak said at least three weeks of payments will be available to Pennsylvanians, then the state would have to apply for more federal funding. The secretary again said he and Gov. Tom Wolf hope Congress ends its deadlock and resumes the FPUC program.
Labor & Industry’s UC trust fund has dwindled during the pandemic, from $3.4 billion to about $540 million, but Oleksiak said his department has secured federal loans to enhance the fund, and should receive the first loan within a week or two.
L&I will have its 15th weekly town hall at 1 p.m. Thursday.
It is open to the public, by calling 833-380-0719 or live-streaming at https://access.live/PAlabor.