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New Federal Unemployment Insurance Extensions
(Updated December 22, 2009)
New action taken by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama on Saturday, December 19, 2009 will now enable more long-term unemployed workers to qualify for federal extension benefits. As part of the national Defense Appropriations bill, Congress has pushed back the filing deadline for unemployment extension claims from December 27 to February 21, 2010. This affects several aspects of the federal extension program and the impacts on claimants all depends on when someone started their regular UI claim and when they are set to exhaust their current benefits.
- For those who run out of all of their regular UI benefits, up to 26 weeks, on or before February 20, 2010, and remain unemployed and otherwise eligible, this new federal action will make you potentially eligible for the first extension or tier of unemployment benefits that provides up to 20 weeks of additional benefits. Eligibility for any further extension benefits beyond that will all depend on whether or not Congress decides to further push back the new extension deadlines.
- For those who run out of their first extension or tier of unemployment benefits, up to 20 additional weeks, on or before February 27, 2010, the new federal action will make you potentially eligible for the second tier of extension benefits. That second tier now provides up to an additional 14 weeks of benefits once someone fully exhausts the first tier extension. If someone remains unemployed and otherwise eligible, they will receive a notice and claim form from EDD upon the end of their first tier of extension and will be seamlessly moved into the second tier once EDD receives the claim form verifying eligibility.
- For those who run out of their second extension or tier of unemployment benefits, up to 14 additional weeks, on or before February 27, 2010, the new federal action will make you potentially eligible for the third tier of extension benefits approved in early November. That third tier provides up to an additional 13 weeks of benefits once someone fully exhausts their second tier extension. The first two-week claim form under this new third tier of extension benefits were sent out by EDD on Monday, December 14, 2009. The first two-week checks for third tier benefits were sent in the mail on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. If you believe you are already eligible for this third tier of extension and have not received your first two-week check by December 23, 2010, please use the online AskEDD method to send an e-mail inquiry to EDD.
- For those who run out of their new third extension of unemployment benefits, up to 13 additional weeks, on or before February 27, 2010, the new federal action will make a new fourth tier of extension benefits, also approved by the federal government in early November, available to eligible claimants. The fourth tier provides up to an additional six weeks of benefits once someone fully exhausts their third tier extension. In order to meet the newly revised filing deadline for the fourth tier, a claimant’s eligibility for the third tier would have to have started on or before November 15, 2009. Only then, for a vast majority of this group of long-term unemployed clients, would there be enough time to start a third tier extension and use all 13 weeks of additional benefits available before February 27, 2010, which is the deadline for starting a fourth tier of extension benefits.
Please watch this Web site for further developments on the filing deadline and other UI-related issues. You can also sign up for our Twitter messages so you are alerted as soon as any new posting occurs.