New Illinois Programs to help those filing for Unemployment

Photo courtesy to Pritzker Facebook page

CHICAGO- Having trouble applying for unemployment insurance? Governor J.B. Pritzker provided an update on the state’s efforts to expand access and eligibility to unemployment insurance.

“The challenges workers and families are facing today is something my whole administration thinks about each day as we are simultaneously attempting to fend off the health consequences of Coronavirus,” said Pritzker. “I will continue to do everything in my power to get our residents the support they need to get through this crisis.”

Through the five weeks from March 1 to April 4, Illinois received 513,173 initial unemployment claims. That is greater than the total number of initial claims for the entirety of 2019.

The administration moved swiftly to increase capacity on the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) website and ramp up efforts at the IDES call center to meet the unparalleled number of unemployment claims.

The administration filed emergency rules to ease eligibility requirements, waived the waiting week for claimants, acted quickly to implement Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) programs.

Below is a descriptions of these programs:

• FPUC provides an additional $600 each week in 100% federally funded benefits to anyone entitled to regular state unemployment benefits. FPUC is available for weeks beginning on or after March 29, 2020 and continuing through the week ending July 25, 2020.
• PUA provides 100% federally funded unemployment benefits for individuals who are unemployed for specified COVID-19-related reasons and are not covered through other avenues in the unemployment insurance program, including self-employed sole proprietors and independent contractors. IDES is contracting with Deloitte to implement and maintain a web-based solution for PUA as quickly as possible. IDES will have this program fully implemented by the week of May 11.
• PEUC provides up to 13 weeks’ worth of 100 percent federally funded benefits to individuals who have exhausted their rights to regular state unemployment benefits of up to 26 weeks in Illinois. PEUC is potentially available for weeks beginning on or after March 29, 2020 and continuing through the week ending December 26, 2020. PEUC will be retroactive once implemented. IDES received USDOL guidelines on April 10 and expects to have the program fully implemented the week of April 20.