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Reopening claims during stay-at-home orders

December 11, 2020 - Sacramento – Federal unemployment payments that have been available for workers who don’t qualify for regular state unemployment benefits and for those who run out of all of their state benefits are set to expire after December 26, 2020. The state Employment Development Department (EDD) is launching an outreach effort to ensure Californians are aware of the upcoming end to the federal CARES Act funding and the associated benefits, along with the various resources that are available to assist them during this difficult time.

The EDD is closely monitoring developments in Washington D.C. and will keep claimants aware of any updates. However, absent congressional action, benefit payments are set to expire for recipients of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) starting December 27, 2020, which will impact an estimated 750,000 Californians.

The PUA program provides up to 46 weeks of benefits to help business owners, self-employed workers, independent contractors and others not usually eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits. The PEUC extension provides up to 13 additional weeks of benefits for those who run out of their up to 26 weeks of benefits associated with a regular UI claim.

Regular UI claims will continue to be paid as long as the claim is within the associated benefit year however, revisions will become necessary for extension claims as follows:

• For those currently on PEUC who meet eligibility requirements for a FED-ED extension, the EDD will automatically transition the claimant to a FED-ED claim and send a notification through the mail.

• FED-ED extensions filed on or after December 27, 2020, will be eligible for up to 13 weeks of benefits instead of the current 20 weeks due to expiring funding provided by the federal CARES Act.

• For existing FED-ED extensions filed prior to December 27, 2020, and established with up to 20 weeks of benefits, the EDD will be required to recalculate the award to the maximum 13 weeks. Any weeks paid over that maximum at the end of the year will not be considered an overpayment.
Source: EDD