State to start making extra $300 UC payments
Pennsylvanians, those extra $300 unemployment benefits will be arriving sooner than anticipated.
State Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak announced Friday afternoon that implementation of the federal Lost Wages Assistance program has been completed sooner than expected. The state will begin making payments next Thursday to those who are eligible. Claimants who apply will start getting payments Sept. 14.
The LWA benefit is a weekly payment of $300 to workers who are partly or completely unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic. States have the option to add another $100 per week from state funds, but Pennsylvania is among those that don’t have the funds to do so.
For residents of the commonwealth, that $300 will replace the weekly $600 payment they were receiving from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which ended in late July. In recent weeks, Oleksiak expressed concerns that installation of a new system to handle the federal payments might not be completed until later in September.
The LWA program requires that eligible claimants have a benefit rate and dependence allowance totaling $100 or more per week in benefits from one of these programs: Regular Unemployment Compensation; Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation; Pandemic Unemployment Assistance; Pennsylvania Extended Benefits; Shared Work or Short-Time Compensation; Trade Readjustment Allowance.
Beginning at 6 a.m. Sunday, claimants who have not finished the certification process should visit www.uc.pa.gov/cert and log in using their pin, as they do to file a biweekly claim. Select the “Complete LWA Certification” button.