How to participate

A livestream will be online at https://access.live/PAlabor. Those without internet access can listen by calling 1-833-380-0719, however access is limited so we ask that they be reserved for individuals who need them.

Participants can ask questions live during the town hall. To protect participants’ personal confidential information, specific questions about individual claims cannot be answered during the town hall.

Pennsylvania has implemented all of the new programs under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act:

• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) – for self-employed, gig workers, contractors and others not normally eligible for UC.
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) – additional 13 weeks of benefits to people who exhaust their regular UC.
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) – extra $600 per week for anyone receiving unemployment benefits.
  • The federal government created and funded the $600 weekly FPUC payment. Under federal requirement, the claim week ending July 25, 2020, was the last $600 FPUC payment claimants will receive. Any extension must be approved by the federal government.

Unemployment Benefits Statistics

Since mid-March, more than $30.7 billion in benefits has been paid to claimants:

• $12 billion from regular UC
• $14.5 billion from FPUC
• $4 billion from PUA
• $184.5 million from PEUC

Of the eligible claimants that applied for benefits between March 15 and June 27, and who filed for continued claims, 93 percent received payment as of July 28. 

Improving Customer Service

• L&I UC staff has worked more than 216,000 overtime hours since mid-March.
• UC service center staffing levels have increased 109 percent since March 15 with the hiring of new employees and reassigning of staff from other state offices/agencies.
• Since mid-March, UC staff has responded to more than 652,169 total emails.

Important Resources and Links

• L&I Press Releases
• L&I COVID-19 Guidance and Resources
• L&I COVID-19 Media Center
• Unemployment Press Briefing for July 27, 2020 (password is xK3MJyUT)

Recordings of prior public town halls are available here. Additional unemployment benefits information is available on L&I’s website, Facebook or Twitter.

Democrats, GOP far apart as virus aid talks intensify
By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — The differences in Washington over the next coronavirus aid package are vast. Democrats propose $3 trillion in relief. Republicans have a $1 trillion counteroffer. And millions of Americans’ jobless benefits, school reopenings and eviction protections are at stake. The White House negotiators are returning to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. It’s apparent that Democrats have the leverage. Republicans are so divided over the prospect of big government spending they are leaving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with a severely weakened hand as a $600 federal unemployment assistance and eviction protections expire Friday.

Pennsylvania reports more than 1,100 new virus cases
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania has reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus infections for the third time in less than a week and the sixth time this month as some regions of the state continue to see rising case numbers. The state Health Department said Tuesday that an additional 1,120 people tested have positive for the virus, raising the statewide total to more than 109,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. Health officials reported 24 new deaths, raising the death toll to 7,146.