New Developments on Federal Unemployment Extensions (Updated August 24, 2010)
We have been receiving a number of calls inquiring about the federal extentions. As you probably already know, on Thursday, July 22, 2010, President Obama signed federal legislation authorizing further access to federal unemployment extension benefits. Approximately 510,000 people ended up experiencing disruptions in federal extension benefits before the reauthorization was approved. Staff at the Employment Development Department responded quickly to catch up on retroactive extension benefits owed to many of these claimants. Federal unemployment claims have been filed and claim forms sent out to all potentially eligible claimants. The large influx of claim forms submitted back to EDD so far have been processed for retroactive benefits dating back to June 2, 2010.
The new legislation has allowed EDD to resume automatically filing the next level of extension claim for eligible unemployed workers once they run out of their regular state unemployment benefits or one of the four tiers of federal extension benefits. November 30, 2010 is now the new deadline for starting any next tier of federal extension benefits available. But the new legislation did not provide any additional benefits to the current maximum of up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. EDD will be closely monitoring any developments on a new bill introduced in Congress that could add an additional tier of extension benefits to the maximum of 99 weeks. But at this point, no significant movement on the bill is reported.
Former employees who experienced disruptions in extension benefits are those who were collecting on the separate extension called the FED-ED extension in California. Due to the lapse in benefit reauthorization, FED-ED benefits had to be abruptly halted in early June. The new federal legislation allows FED-ED benefits to resume. As long as California continues to meet the unemployment requirement to file FED-ED extensions, EDD can continue filing new FED-ED extensions that provide up to 20 additional weeks of benefits. The FED-ED claim must begin by November 30, 2010.
- state unemployment benefits or one of the four tiers of extension benefits between now and November 30, 2010. Continuing benefits will always be dependent on continuing to meet all UI eligibility requirements.
We will keep you posted if an additional federal extention is passed.
