Today the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) provided the following updates and status on the federal unemployment programs extended by HR 133, the Continued Assistance Act (CAA) of 2021. CAA will extend all federal programs from December 27, 2020 to week ending March 13, 2021.
“We know how important these comprehensive benefits are to Nevadans and making sure they receive them is our number one priority. We are working as quickly as we can to implement all federal disbursement programs, but will take time to realize this in both systems and ask the public for patience as we continue to provide critical assistance to Nevadans, ”said Elisa Cafferata, Director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
PUA under the CAA:
The CARES Act created the PUA program in 2020. Self-employed and handymen could collect 39 weeks in benefits in total. And the original PUA program ended on December 26, 2020.
For PUA, CAA has added 11 weeks to the number of weeks that a claimant can receive up to 50 weeks in total in PUA.
Unlike the regular UI program, the PUA program has a expiration dateUnder CAA, eligible claimants can receive benefits until April 10, 2021 or for up to 50 weeks, whichever comes first.
States with high unemployment rates may offer a one-time 7-week extension, which some PUA claimants began to receive in 2020. The Department of Labor demanded that Nevada “disable” this extension for PUA when the program expired on December 26, 2020. Unfortunately, this complication delayed full implementation of the 11-week extension for PUA.
Status: DETR is working with our supplier to ensure that eligible claimants can receive their weekly benefits for the full 11 weeks of CAA PUA benefits, retroactively to December 27, 2020. DETR expects claimants will have these additional weeks in their portals before the end of the month.
PEUC for normal user interface:
The CAA has added 11 weeks of benefits for eligible UI recipients.
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Status: In the normal user interface, the 11 week PEUC extension is coded and tested. We found that additional programming is needed to track when plaintiffs depleted the first 13 weeks of PEUC of the CARES Act, before switching to the 11 week PEUC of the Continued Assistance Act. This computer programming is now being tested. Once it passes the test, we can implement it and start payments. Plaintiffs get all the weeks they are entitled to by continuing to file their weekly claims.
FPUC for normal UI and for PUA:
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act has reinstated the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program, offering an additional $ 300 weekly allowance on claims paid for the weeks from December 27, 2020 to the week ending March 13, 2021.
Status: This benefit programming has been implemented in most programs and payments have been made along with unemployment benefits to eligible applicants in both UI and PUA, without the need for further action by the applicants.
Claimants awaiting updated programming to receive the extended benefits under the Continuous Assistance Act will receive any weeks of FPUC for which they are eligible, as their benefits have been caught up.
Extensive benefits in the event of high unemployment:
States with high unemployment rates may offer a one-time 7-week extension, which some PUA claimants began to receive 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 persists.
DETR originally announced that due to Nevada’s high average insured unemployment rate, the state would be able to provide 7 weeks of additional extended benefits (EB) to claimants who exhausted their claims. In the regular user interface, DETR was able to immediately offer this benefit to eligible claimants.
Unfortunately, because 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 claims. This could create a two-week gap for many PUA recipients.
Status: To avoid that gap, DETR is finalizing contingency regulations that will allow the agency to apply the additional 7 weeks and make payments without having to wait for the federally imposed 13 weeks. The emergency regulations must be signed by the agency’s administration and the governor before being presented to the legislature, which has 15 days to review them. DETR is on track to enact these emergency regulations a week before the 11 weeks of CAA PUA benefits run out. PUA claimants can receive the 7 week EB without any disruption to benefits.
LAW:
Status: Although we have applied for additional funds from FEMA, we have not received enough LWA funding to pay for week 6. Any remaining funds will be used to pay for weeks 1-5 for people who are awaiting a judgment or appeal and will eventually qualify for the benefits in those weeks. The applicants do not need to take any action to receive this benefit.
All extensions:
It’s important to note that these federal programs generally expire in the week ending March 13, 2021, unless Congress extends them. And the extensions require additional computer programming. If they wait too late to renew the programs, we may find a new loophole in providing the benefits.
Plaintiffs may not realize that even with these extensions, their benefits may have expired temporarily as a result of federal rules. For example:
- A PUA claimant who started filing 2/2/20 would have received the PUA claim of up to 39 weeks by October 31, 2020 – completely exhausting their PUA claim.
- They would then be eligible for extended benefits, and those 7 weeks would have ended on December 19, 2020 – exhausting their PUA + EB claim.
- Under CAA, the 11 additional weeks will end from the week ending March 13, 2021.
DETR encourages plaintiffs to visit http://ui.nv.gov/css.html [ui.nv.gov] and detr.nv.gov/coronavirus [detr.nv.gov] to view important announcements and access critical resources. Additional updates will be provided as information becomes available.