Extending Your Regular Unemployment Compensation Benefits
When your regular benefits end, you are eligible for additional benefits until the week ending September 4, 2021, just continue filing your biweekly claims.
How to Extend Your UC Benefits
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation is an emergency federal program created during the COVID-19 pandemic that gives you additional weeks of unemployment compensation benefits after you run out of regular state benefits. The program currently ends the week ending September 4, 2021.
To get PEUC, keep filing your biweekly claims and the government will automatically add the benefits to your claim. You will also receive a determination in the mail about your PEUC benefits.
What happens when I run out of PEUC?
If you exhaust PEUC, Pennsylvania has its own unemployment extension called Extended Benefits (EB). Workers are eligible for up to 13 weeks of EB in Pennsylvania. Your EB benefit will be half the weeks of your regular claim. For example, if you received 26 weeks of regular UC, you will receive 13 weeks of EB, or if you received 20 weeks of regular UC, you will receive 10 weeks of EB.
How do I get on the Extended Benefits (EB) Program?
To continue receiving benefits through the EB extension, all you need to do is continue filing biweekly claims. The benefits will be automatically added to to your claim. You will also receive a determination in the mail about your EB benefits.
However, there are two differences with EB:
- You cannot file through the PAT telephone system, only file online. If you are unable to file online, you can request the government mail you a paper application that you can return through the mail.
- When you log in to file your biweekly claim, your account will say it is inactive. You need to click the "File an EB claim" button at the bottom of the screen to file.
When does Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation End?
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) ends the week ending September 4th, 2021. When PEUC ends, your claim should be automatically switched to the Extended Benefits (EB) program if you have not already collected those benefits within the last year.
You might experience a delay getting your Extended Benefits (EB) when PEUC ends. You should file biweekly claims for Extended Benefits as soon as PEUC ends or you run out of PEUC benefits.
How does the extension Congress passed in December 2020 affect my benefits?
Congress passed an extension of the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program on March 11, 2021, and brought back the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUC) program that now provides an extra $300 until the week ending September 4th, 2021. Learn more from our page about How the Stimulus Bill Affects Regular UC.