A state House bill introduced Wednesday would extend eligibility until Dec. 31 for a key federal unemployment insurance program.
The Republican-sponsored House Bill 107, sponsored by Rep. Julia Howard, R-Davie, makes two changes to state COVID-19 regulations.
A companion Senate Bill 114 was introduced by Sen. Chuck Edwards, R-Buncombe.
The first would affect the federal pandemic emergency unemployment compensation program, which had expired on Dec. 31, 2020.
The second would keep employers contribution base rate at 1.9% for the state s unemployment tax for 2021. A rate increase is scheduled for this year.
Employers pay a tax into the state s UI system between 0.06% and 5.76%. Employers can pay a higher rate based on their history of job cuts and layoffs.
WGAL continues to hear from viewers who are frustrated by a lack of action and a lack of response on their unemployment claims.While the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry said last week that it was on the verge of fixing problems keeping benefits out of people’s pockets, there are new issues.Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said during a news conference Monday, Feb. 1, that people have reported long delays in an online waiting room to file Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims. That waiting room had several thousand people in it on Sunday. Our vendor is very aware of the recent long wait times, and the vendor also performed some quick maintenance on the site a short time ago to try and improve the situation,” Berrier said.Berrier also said updates have been made to the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation system.“Just yesterday we completed a change to our Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, or PEUC, system that allows a small subset of claim
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry held a news briefing to discuss Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance on Tuesday morning.
Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Acting Secretary Jennifer Berrier said Tuesday that problems with the unemployment system have been fixed or will be soon fixed.