The Georgia Department of Labor is implementing the additional unemployment benefits provided by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, according to a press release. The new legislation will extend potential unemployment insurance benefits and the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation weekly supplement of $300 for those still unemployed through Sept. 6.
“We have received the guidelines from the USDOL to implement the 29 week extension that is part of the new stimulus bill,” said Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler. “This extension should be seamless for claimants currently receiving benefits that were part of the Continued Assistance Act. However, many claimants will need to pay close attention to upcoming benefit year ending dates and reapply for benefits accordingly.”
Claimants who have not reached their benefit year ending date should continue to request payments weekly as the extensions are implemented and should not experience any delay in payments. However, if a claimant’s benefit year ends, he/she will need to file a new claim. A benefit year is the 52-week period beginning on the Sunday of the week a new claim is filed. Once this time period expires, claimants must reapply for benefits reporting any additional work history, including temporary, part-time, self-employment, or W-2 work. Once the new regular UI claim is processed, claimants who are unable to establish a valid claim, will be placed back into the appropriate federal CARES Act program for the new extensions to be applied.
“There has been a great deal of confusion regarding filing a new claim,” said Commissioner Butler. “Claimants need to be aware that no matter what program you are part of, if you have reached the end of your benefit year, you must reapply for regular UI benefits to determine if you qualify for a new regular UI claim.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March of last year, the GDOL has processed 4,522,899 regular UI initial claims, more than the combined last nine years prior to the pandemic (4.0 million). Initial claims for the first 11 weeks of 2021 totaled 322,066, compared to 291,962 for all of 2019. Last week, regular UI initial claims totaled 24,700, down 274 over the week. Additionally, the agency currently has 347,313 active PUA claims.
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