PA UNEMPLOYMENT WORK SEARCH ACTIVITY FULL

“Employers are absolutely in the midst of a workforce crisis,” Halper said. Dozens of county chambers of commerce signed a letter to the state legislature in May urging officials to reinstate the work-search requirement.Īlex Halper, director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, said that while unemployment is a “critical safety net” for people out of work, it makes sense to ensure people are searching for work while receiving those benefits. The American economy added over half a million jobs in May, but thousands of positions in Pennsylvania remain unfilled. Unemployment in Pennsylvania was 6.9% in May, according to the most recent estimate, down from a peak of over 15% in April 2020. “The people that are most affected by this are the people who are living at or below the poverty line.” “Adding in yet another piece of the puzzle for to monitor and measure seems like it is going to inject more delay, more bureaucratic red tape into a process that is already overwhelmed,” said Melissa Evans, attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services in Pittsburgh. Advocates fear that some unemployed residents don’t know about impending change, leaving them vulnerable to being denied assistance.

The requirement will also apply to those in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which expanded benefit eligibility to business owners, freelancers, and independent contractors.įor unemployed Pennsylvanians, the requirement could create more hurdles to navigate a system riddled with inefficiencies that has left some without benefits for weeks or months. HARRISBURG - Unemployed Pennsylvanians and their advocates are bracing for the return of work-search requirements, fearing the overburdened system is not yet equipped to handle another change.īeginning July 18, people seeking unemployment must attest that they applied for two jobs and completed a “work search activity,” like attending a job fair or posting a resume on a recruiting site, the week prior.

If you earned $50, you would be eligible for your entire WBA ($200) because $50 is less than $60 (your PBC).Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. If you earned $270 that week, you would not be eligible for any benefits since that is more than the $260 total. You would be eligible for $160 of benefits. To figure out that amount, you just subtract $100 from $260 (the total amount of your PBC and WBA). So, if you earned $100 in a week, you would be eligible for an offset amount of your WBA. This means, in this case, you must have earned under $260 to qualify for benefits. So to figure out what amount of earnings would make you not eligible for benefits, you need to add those two amounts together. If your WBA is $200, that means your PBC is $60 (that’s 30% of $200).

If you earn more than your PBC and WBA combined, you will not be eligible for benefits that week.

If you earn more than your PBC, there will be a dollar for dollar offset.

PA UNEMPLOYMENT WORK SEARCH ACTIVITY FULL

If you earn less than your PBC, you will get your full WBA.Here’s how you use it to figure out how much of your WBA you will get while doing part time work: Your PBC is 30% of your Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA). It depends on how much you made in gross earnings and your Partial Benefit Credit (PBC).

Many claimants who work part-time during the week can still qualify for benefits. Remember, all UC claimants must report their W2 gross income (the amount earned before taxes).

Pa unemployment work search activity