Governor OKs Unemployment Benefits Extension

Gov. Tom Corbett Feb. 9 signed into law Senate Bill 1375, ensuring that federally funded Extended Benefits in Pennsylvania will continue, without interruption, to unemployment compensation claimants through March 10.

According to a release, Extended Benefits are additional weeks of unemployment compensation payable to qualified workers when the state’s unemployment rate reaches a certain level. They are only payable after individuals have exhausted their rights to state-funded benefits and federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

High Unemployment Period (HUP) Extended Benefits are payable to individuals who have exhausted their regular Extended Benefits.

The newly enacted legislation will allow claimants to receive HUP Extended Benefits through Feb. 18 and regular Extended Benefits through March 10.

The Department of Labor & Industry’s Center for Workforce Information & Analysis estimates that this law will allow 17,000 claimants to collect $30 million in federally funded Extended Benefits over the five week period from Feb. 5 through March 10.

The law goes into effect immediately, and is retroactive. Without this change in the law, claimants could only collect Extended Benefits through Feb. 4.

Information for claimants will be available on the Department of Labor & Industry’s unemployment compensation services website, www.uc.pa.gov.

To read the full text of this bill, visit the General Assembly’s website at www.legis.state.pa.us.