April 15, 2020

USA: As Part Of The Federal CARES Act, The New Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) Program Helps Unemployed Californians Who Are Business Owners, Self-Employed, Independent Contractors.

I'm sharing links for California unemployment web portal. But this PUA Federal Cares Act information applies to every state. So please look up your state unemployment website for information about PUA benefits specifically for your state. You can visit U.S. Dept of Labor:  Coronavirus Resources website for more information. (emphasis mine)

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
[source: CA EDD]

As part of the federal CARES Act, the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program helps unemployed Californians who are business owners, self-employed, independent contractors, have limited work history, and others not usually eligible for regular state UI benefits who are out of business or services are significantly reduced as a direct result of the pandemic. The provisions of the program once operational include:
  • Up to 39 weeks of benefits starting with weeks of unemployment beginning February 2, 2020, through the week ending December 31, 2020, depending on when you became directly impacted by the pandemic.
  • An additional $600 to each PUA weekly benefit amount you may be eligible to receive, as part of the separate CARES Act Pandemic Additional Compensation program. Only the weeks of a claim between March 29 and July 31 are eligible for the extra $600 payments.
4/17/20 at 2:18pm CA EDD UPDATED WEBSITE WITH THIS INFO:
*Under the CARES Act of 2020, the $600 additional benefits are available through 07/31/20. However, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued guidance to clarify that, for most Californians, the last full week of benefits will end on 07/25/20. Similarly, the PUA program has a legislative end date of 12/31/20, but for Californians the last full week of benefits will end on 12/26/20.

Benefits can be retroactive to weeks starting on or after February 2, 2020, depending on your last day of work due to COVID-19 and regardless of when you submitted your claim application. The effective date of your claim will begin the Sunday of the week when you last worked and became unemployed due to reasons directly related to COVID-19.
Important Information
PLEASE hurry up already. We are waiting patiently. (emphasis mine)
Note: Because this is a brand new program, each state will need time to develop all of the necessary system programming, forms, processes, and procedures. This page will be updated as information becomes available, including when and how to apply for these benefits. Once this new complex program is built and staffed, it will likely rival the size of the regular UI program the EDD already administers.

As we work to implement this new program, you can:
  • Review the eligibility requirements the federal government has prescribed in order to receive these federally paid benefits.
  • Contact your local America’s Job Center of CaliforniaSM where EDD staff work with local partners to provide employment assistance. You could be eligible for Supportive Services funding to help you with basic needs.
Eligibility

The PUA benefits are payable if you don’t qualify for regular UI benefits in California or another state and also do not qualify for State Disability Insurance or Paid Family Leave benefits. This includes:
  • Business owners
  • Self-employed individuals
  • Independent contractors
  • Individuals who may have qualified for regular UI benefits but have collected all benefits for which they are eligible.
If you are not a citizen of the United States, you cannot be paid PUA benefits unless you were legally permitted to work in the United States at the time such services were performed. In addition, you must be authorized to work for any week of PUA benefits claimed to be eligible for payments.

You must also meet one of the following criteria:
  • You have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and are seeking a medical diagnosis.
  • You are unable to work because a health care provider advised you to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19.
  • A member of your household has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
  • You are providing care for a family member or a member of your household who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
  • A child or other person in the household for whom you have primary caregiving responsibility is unable to attend school or another facility that is closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 and the school or facility care is required for you to work.
  • You became the breadwinner or major support for a household because the head of the household has died as a direct result of COVID-19.
  • You have to quit your job as a direct result of COVID-19.
  • Your place of employment is closed as a direct result of COVID-19.
  • You were scheduled to start a job that is now unavailable as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
  • You are unable to reach the place of employment as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
  • If you work as an independent contractor with reportable income, you may also qualify for PUA benefits if you are unemployed, partially employed, or unable or unavailable to work because the COVID-19 public health emergency has severely limited your ability to continue performing your customary work activities, and has thereby forced you to stop working.
4/17/20 at 2:18pm CA EDD UPDATED WEBSITE WITH THIS INFO:

Benefit Payments

In order to provide benefits as quickly as possible, payments will be issued in phases. If you qualify for PUA, and depending on the effective date of your PUA claim, the initial payments you will receive are as follows:

Phase 1: $167 per week for each week you were unemployed from February 2, 2020 to March 28, 2020 due to a COVID-19 related reason.
Phase 2: $167 plus $600 per week for each week you were unemployed from March 29, 2020 to July 25, 2020, due to a COVID-19 related reason.
Phase 3: $167 per week, for each week from July 26, 2020 to December 26, 2020, that you are unemployed due to a COVID-19 related reason, up to a total of 39 weeks (minus any weeks of regular UI and certain extended UI benefits that you have received).

Note: If you qualify for your claim to be backdated to an earlier PUA effective date based on your last day of work, you could receive payment for prior weeks you were unemployed due to COVID-19.

You will be required to “certify” for your benefit payment. Certifying is the process of answering basic questions every two weeks that tells us you’re still unemployed and otherwise eligible to continue receiving biweekly payments.
When to File a Claim

The EDD is sorting through details from the U.S Department of Labor as to how they want this complex program to work in issuing payments that the federal government will be funding. We have a dedicated team working around the clock with state partners to build this new program as quickly as possible. This page will be updated with instructions for filing a claim for PUA benefits when details become available.
4/15/20 at 6:17pm CA EDD UPDATED WEBSITE WITH THIS INFO:
The EDD will begin accepting online applications for this PUA program on Tuesday, April 28. 👈
If you are unsure if you are an independent contractor or an employee who could be eligible for benefits, file for regular Unemployment Insurance benefits and we will determine your eligibility.

After you have filed, refer to our step-by-step UI claims process. You’ll learn what to expect and the actions you need to take through the course of your claim for receiving benefit payments as long as you’re eligible.


California is responding to the spread of a respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus (COVID-19). While investigations to learn more about the virus are ongoing, workers and employers should review their health and safety procedures to help prevent exposure to the virus.

The EDD provides a variety of support services to people who have lost their jobs or have had their hours reduced due to the impacts of COVID-19 in California. For faster and more convenient access to those services, we encourage the use of our online options.

For the latest Unemployment Insurance claim data available, visit the Newsroom.

Latest News

We have reviewed the federal CARES Act and are pleased to report that on Sunday, for the week ending April 11, the EDD will begin issuing the new $600 additional unemployment benefit payments funded by the federal government. Visit the Latest News for Workers for the details.
  • In addition, the EDD has launched a new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance page to keep you informed of eligibility requirements and the around-the-clock effort to build this new program from the CARES Act. This complex program to serve those who don’t usually qualify for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, including businesses and the self-employed, has to be developed and could rival the size of the current UI program EDD administers for unemployed workers.
  • The EDD will also keep you posted on the CARES Act provision establishing a new 13-week extension of benefits paid for by the federal government when someone exhausts their regular state UI claim between March 29, 2020 and the end of 2020. This too also requires an extensive effort to implement these new extended benefits.
For more detailed updates,
visit Worker Resources or Employer Resources.

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) FAQs
I'm sharing this news article below because I know that many of you out there are experiencing the same and are freaking out too. California Unemployment needs to speed things up because people are seriously struggling right now with no income coming in due to mandatory forced quarantine. (emphasis mine)
ABC10 News, San Diego local
written by Jennifer Kastner
April 10, 2020

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – San Diegans who are self-employed or independent contractors who’ve been put out of work amid the pandemic are struggling to collect unemployment benefits.

“I'm seeing people grasping for any sort of certainty,” says Kim Creekmore. She’s a self-employed stylist who owns Cultivate Hair Salon in La Mesa.

She also runs "Salon Professionals of San Diego," a network of thousands of local stylists. She says that several local stylists like her have filed for unemployment benefits after being forced to stop working during the pandemic.

“They're filing as self-employed. The government came down and said self-employed [people] were going to be covered but we haven't been seeing that come true,” she tells 10News.

Guy Hamel is one of the stylists who got a notice from the state’s unemployment office.

“It [showed] my maximum benefit amount was zero. Total wages were zero,” Hamel tells 10News. "That's when I started freaking out. I called probably over 200 times.”

When he finally got through to a representative, he says, “she said that I did everything right. I filled out everything right but the government wasn't ready to release the funds yet.”

California's Employment Development Department’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits are payable to the self-employed and independent contractors.

The EDD referred 10News to the website that reads in part:

“The EDD is sorting through details from the U.S Department of Labor as to how they want this complex program to work in issuing payments that the federal government will be funding. We have a dedicated team working around the clock with state partners to build this new program as quickly as possible. [The] page will be updated with instructions for filing a claim for PUA benefits when details become available. If you are unsure if you are an independent contractor or an employee who could be eligible for benefits, file for regular Unemployment Insurance benefits and we will determine your eligibility. After you have filed, refer to our step-by-step UI claims process. You’ll learn what to expect and the actions you need to take through the course of your claim for receiving benefit payments as long as you’re eligible.”

For more information, visit the California EDD website here.

UPDATE 4/17/20 at 11:59am: Added info below.
👇 Speaker Pelosi doesn't give a damn about Americans. 👇

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 1:07 PM

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