Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation May 21, 2020

Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation

Additional weeks of unemployment benefits will be retroactively available to people who have exhausted their state unemployment benefits. These additional weeks are available to anyone whose benefit year ends on or after July 1, 2019 and who remains otherwise eligible. Benefits will be paid retroactively to the week ending March 21, 2020 or the week following your state unemployment exhaustion, whichever is later. The weekly certifications must be filed for those weeks in order for payments to be made. If you have not filed for the week ending March 21 or later, please log in to your ReEmployME account to file those certifications.

Anyone who meets the eligibility criteria and who exhausted their state unemployment benefits will receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for the weeks ending March 21 and March 28. Starting with the week ending April 4 and later, the Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) will begin. For weeks ending April 4 through July 25, 2020, the additional $600/week in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation will also be paid.

Important details:

• Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) is a temporary federal program that provides up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits. The federal CARES Act authorized PEUC payments starting with weeks ending April 4, 2020 and running through December 26, 2020
• The technical programming needed to make PEUC payments is being tested.
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) will be used to make payments to people who have exhausted state unemployment benefits until PEUC is implemented.
• This means that people who have exhausted their state unemployment benefits will begin receiving PUA benefits, which are $172/week.
• You must have filed your weekly certifications in order to receive these benefits.
• If you have already filed your weekly certifications, please continue to do so.
• If you stopped filing your weekly certifications, you should log in to your ReEmployME account and file the weekly certifications back to March 21. Continue filing each week going forward.
• Once PEUC is implemented, the department will automatically transfer you from PUA to PEUC. Your weekly benefit will change to reflect the amount you had been receiving through the state unemployment program. You will receive a letter with information about your PEUC eligibility. If the amount you would receive through PEUC is greater than the $172/week, you will receive the difference retroactively.

Please be sure to file your weekly certifications. You can find more information on these programs and log in to your ReEmployME account at https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/ .

Maine Department of Labor and Maine CareerCenters provide equal opportunity in employment and programs. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request.