Today, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) has provided the following updates and statuses on federal unemployment programs expanded by HR 133, the Continued Assistance Act (CAA) of 2021. CAA expands all programs federal from December 27, 2020 to March 13, 2021.
“We know the importance of these benefits for Nevada residents and ensuring that they receive them is our number one priority. We are working as quickly as possible to implement all federal benefit programs, but we need time to realize this in both systems and ask the public for patience as we move forward in critical care for Nevada residents, ”said Elisa Cafferata. director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
PUA under the CAA:
The CARES law created the PUA program in 2020. Self-employed workers and concert workers could receive up to a total of 39 weeks of benefits. And the original PUA program expired on December 26, 2020.
For PUA, CAA added 11 weeks to the number of weeks a claimant can receive benefits for a maximum total of 50 weeks in PUA.
Unlike the normal UI program, the PUA program has one Expiry date. According to CAA, eligible applicants could collect benefits until April 10, 2021 or for a maximum of 50 weeks, whichever comes first.
States with high unemployment rates may offer a single 7-week extension, which some PUA applicants began receiving in 2020. The Department of Labor demanded that Nevada “disable” this extension for PUA when the program went expire December 26, 2020 Unfortunately, this complication delayed the full implementation of the 11-week extension for PUA.
Status: DETR is working with our provider to ensure that eligible applicants can earn their weekly benefits during the full 11 weeks of CAA PUA benefits, retroactive to December 27, 2020. DETR anticipates that claimants will see these additional weeks. on their portals before the end of the month.
PEUC for normal UI:
The CAA added 11 weeks of benefits for eligible UI recipients.
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Status: In the normal user interface, coding and testing of 11-week PEUC extensions are ongoing. We found that additional scheduling is needed to keep track of when claimants are running out of the first 13 weeks of the CARES Act PEUC, before moving on to the 11-week PEUC of the Continuing Care Act. This computer programming is being tested now. As soon as you pass the tests, we can deploy it and payments will start coming out. Claimants will get all the weeks they are entitled to if they continue to file their weekly claims.
FPUC for normal UI and for PUA:
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act reinstated the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program (FPUC), which provided an additional weekly benefit of $ 300 to claims paid during the weeks of December 27th. from 2020 until the week ending March 13, 2021.
Status: This benefit programming has been implemented in most programs and payments have been issued along with unemployment benefits to eligible applicants in both UI and PUA, without the need for any further action.
Claimants waiting for an updated schedule to receive the Extended Assistance Act benefit will receive the subsequent weeks of FPUC for which they are eligible as their payments are collected.
Extended benefits for high unemployment:
States with high unemployment rates can offer a one-week extension of 7 weeks, which some PUA claimants began receiving in 2020. Claimants who began receiving extended benefits (EB) in 2020 can receive the balance of their 7 weeks in 2021, as long as the unemployment rate is maintained.
DETR originally announced that due to Nevada’s high average insured unemployment rate, the state could offer an additional 7 weeks of extended benefits (EB) for claimants who had exhausted their claims. In the normal UI, DETR was able to immediately offer this advantage to eligible claimants.
Unfortunately, since the PUA program expired on December 26, 2020, the Department of Labor requires Nevada to wait 13 weeks before adding 7 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB) for PUA claimants who have exhausted their benefits. their claims. This could create a two-week gap for many PUA recipients.
Status: To avoid this loophole, DETR is finalizing emergency regulations that will allow the agency to implement the additional seven weeks and issue payments without having to wait for the mandatory 13 federal weeks. Emergency regulations must be signed by the agency’s administration and the governor before they are presented to the legislature, which has 15 days to review them. DETR is scheduled to establish these emergency regulations one week before the 11-week depletion of CAA PUA benefits. PUA claimants will be able to receive the 7 weeks of EB without interruption of benefits.
LAW:
Status: Although we applied for additional funding from FEMA, we did not obtain sufficient LWA funding to pay for week 6. The remaining funds will be used to pay for weeks 1-5 for people awaiting award or appeal and end up qualifying. -se for profit in those weeks. No action by the claimants is required to receive this benefit.
All extensions:
It is important to note that these federal programs generally expire in the week ending March 13, 2021, unless Congress extends them. And extensions will require additional computer programming. If they wait too late to expand the programs, we may experience another gap when it comes to providing the benefits.
Claimants may not realize that their benefits, even with these extensions, may have temporarily expired due to federal regulations. For example:
- A PUA claimant who started filing on 02/02/20 would have received the maximum PUA of 39 weeks 2020 on October 31, 2020, exhausting his PUA claim.
- They would then have been eligible for extended benefits and these seven weeks would have ended on December 19, 2020, exhausting their PUA + EB claim.
- According to CAA, the additional 11 weeks will run out the week ending March 13, 2021.
DETR encourages claimants to visit them http://ui.nv.gov/css.html [ui.nv.gov] i detr.nv.gov/coronavirus [detr.nv.gov] to see important ads and access essential resources. Additional updates will be provided as the information becomes available.