PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Unemployment checks began flowing back into the bank accounts of tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians this week — while many others are still waiting for their compensation.
People who receive benefits through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs have not received anything since both expired the day after Christmas.
Although the programs were extended through the federal government’s stimulus relief package, Philadelphia legal assistance attorney Julia Simon-Mishel said the hangup is now in Harrisburg.
“The (Pennsylvania) Department of Labor and Industry is working to set the program back up with the extension before workers are able to start filing again for benefits,” she said.
The department is advising people to hold off on filing claims until it gets both programs up and running again, though there’s no timetable given for when that will happen.
Simon-Mishel believes the delay never should have happened in the first place.
“We knew as a country that this benefits cliff was coming for months and months,” she said. “If it had been addressed earlier and the extension had been passed earlier, there would not have been this time period where people had to go without getting paid.”
Jeff Blair, a digital sales rep from North Philadelphia, has been out of work since April 2020.
“It’s frustrating, but one thing I learned a long time ago is stress kills. And you see a lot of people with high stress. You have to calm down,” he said.
When the checks eventually start going out, they will include backpay to the week starting Dec. 27.
“They will also get an extra $300 per week from the renewal of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program,” added Simon-Mishel.