AP
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State officials want to assure about 500,000 jobless Pennsylvanians who are independent contractors, freelancers and tech workers that they will continue to get their unemployment benefits under the new $900 billion covid relief package, but they don’t when the checks will be in the mail.
Labor and Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said she does not have an approximate time frame for the release of the new money for jobless workers under the bill Congress passed late Monday because they must wait for the U.S. Department of Labor to set the rules for distributing the funds.
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Pittsburgher Criseena Johnson is one of millions of people who will lose her unemployment benefits in a matter of days, without Congressional action.
Johnson, a single mother who worked for more than 15 years in the restaurant industry, has been out of a job since March.
“I’m one of those people that’s teetering the line of picking which one do I want to keep, do I want to feed my family, or do I want to keep my car?”
And that’s before she expects her unemployment to end on Dec. 26.
Two programs – Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation – will end this month if Congress does not extend them.