DETR urges patience as it works to implement extended benefits

The top leader of Nevada’s workforce bureau is asking jobless filers for patience as the agency is still working to implement extended unemployment programs as part of the stimulus package signed into law late December.

“We know how important these extended benefits are to Nevadans and ensuring they receive them is our number one priority,” Elisa Cafferata, director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, said in a release Friday.

In late December, former President Donald Trump signed into law the $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package, providing unemployment program extensions for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs. Both programs were extended for 11 weeks, until March 14, and the legislation adds a $300 supplemental weekly payment.

On Friday, Cafferata said DETR is “working as fast as we can to implement all federal benefit programs but need time to realize this in both systems and ask for the public’s patience as we move forward in providing critical assistance to Nevadans.”

PUA program update

DETR said Friday that the agency is having complications with implementation for the PUA program, with a timeline for additional weeks in a filer’s portal by the end of the month.

Under the Continued Assistance Act – as part of the stimulus package signed back in December – PUA claimants can receive an additional 11 weeks of benefits for a total maximum of 50 weeks in the program.

States with high unemployment rates can offer a one-time extension of seven weeks. DETR said some PUA claimants started receiving the extension back in 2020.

However, the U.S. Department of Labor said DETR needed to “turn off” this extension for the program when it expired on Dec. 26.

“Unfortunately, this complication delayed full implementation of the 11-week extension for PUA,” DETR said Friday.

The agency is working with its vendor so PUA filers will receive the 11 weeks of benefits, retroactive to Dec. 27. Claimants should see these additional weeks in their portals before the end of the month.

High unemployment extended benefits

With the extended benefits, which Nevada offered a one-time extension of seven weeks for PUA claimants, the agency said those receiving such benefits in 2020 can receive the balance in 2021. Because the PUA program expired the day after Christmas, the Labor Department is requiring Nevada to wait 13 weeks of EB for PUA filers that exhausted their claims; this could create a tw0-week gap for many PUA recipients.

“To avoid that gap, DETR is finalizing emergency regulations that will allow the agency to apply the additional 7 weeks and issue payments without having to wait the federally-mandated 13 weeks,” the agency said Friday. “The emergency regulations must be signed by agency administration and the Governor prior to being presented to Legislature which has 15 days to review them. DETR is on schedule to have these emergency regulations in place a week before the 11 weeks of CAA PUA benefits exhaust. PUA claimants will be able to receive the 7 weeks of EB without an interruption in benefits.”

Other unemployment programs

For PEUC, which has allowed for up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to people who previously collected state or federal unemployment compensation but exhausted those benefits, DETR said it has faced hiccups for the 11-week extension.

“We discovered that additional programming is needed to track when claimants are exhausting the first 13 weeks of PEUC from the CARES Act, before they switched over to the 11 weeks of PEUC from the Continued Assistance Act,” DETR said Friday. “This computer programming is being tested now. As soon as it passes testing, we can deploy it and payments will start going out. Claimants will get all of the weeks they are entitled to by continuing to file their weekly claims.”

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.