For some Oregonians, the federal extension of unemployment benefits may not last as long as expected.
In the waning hours of 2020, Congress and President Donald Trump agreed to keep emergency unemployment programs alive until mid-March. But what was billed as an 11-week extension of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, lasting almost until spring, could end up being shorter.
When Congress first created PUA, the program provided up to 39 weeks of support to a broad swath of workers. It covered people who don’t typically qualify for jobless benefits, such as the self-employed, in addition to people who can’t work because they’ve been directly affected by COVID-19.
In extending the program, the Oregon Employment Department is relying on guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor that puts a 50-week cap on PUA benefits. That cap, however, includes weeks when a claimant benefited from other unemployment programs.
For example, take a self-employed Oregonian whose business was hit hard by the pandemic early last year. They may have exhausted all 39 weeks of their original PUA, plus an additional seven weeks through a program called High Extended Benefits.
According to the Employment Department, that claimant received 46 weeks of PUA benefits in 2020.
“Some of you will only receive four more weeks of PUA benefits in 2021,” the agency wrote, in bold, in a Friday email, “not the 11 weeks often described.”
So instead of having benefits practically through the winter, they might not get paid beyond this month.
PUA also provides a final safety net for workers who exhaust traditional unemployment insurance benefits, or UI, and Extended Benefits. But Oregon is counting those weeks towards the PUA cap as well.
“If you received Regular UI and EB and are now on PUA, Regular UI and EB weeks count toward your 50 PUA weeks total,” the agency wrote.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants to extend federal emergency unemployment benefits through September 2021.
In the meantime, some Oregonians who have relied on PUA benefits to survive the pandemic are experiencing déjà vu — and the clock ticking once again.