​To be eligible for PUA, an individual cannot be eligible for regular UC. For this reason, the Department recommends that all individuals apply for regular UC first to check whether there are any base year wages on record. If denied, the individual should then proceed to apply for PUA.

You should file for regular UC if you have an employer and

• you have been laid off, or
• your hours have been reduced through no fault of your own, or
• you cannot work because a medical or public official has directed you to quarantine or self-isolate because of COVID-19 exposure, symptoms, or a positive diagnosis; or
• you are caring for someone who is suspected of having or has tested positive for COVID-19.

You should file for PUA if you are ineligible for regular UC because you have lost income due to COVID-19 and

• are self-employed, or
• lack sufficient work history, or
• have exhausted all rights to regular UC or extended benefits.

To be eligible for PUA, an individual cannot be eligible for regular UC. For this reason, the Department recommends that all individuals apply for regular UC first to check whether there are any base year wages on record. If denied, the individual should then proceed to apply for PUA.

You may be eligible for PUA if you are self-employed, do not have sufficient work history to qualify for regular UC, or have exhausted your rights to regular UC benefits or extended benefits.

PUA provides up to 79 weeks of benefits to covered individuals who are not eligible for regular UC and who are otherwise able and available to work except that they are unemployed or partially employed because of any one of the following COVID-19-related reasons:

• You have been diagnosed with or are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and are seeking a medical diagnosis;

• A member of your household has been diagnosed with COVID-19;

• You are providing care for a family member or a member of your household who has been diagnosed with COVID-19;

• Your child or other person in the household for whom you are the primary caregiver is unable to attend school or another facility that is closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that school or facility care is required for you to work;

• You are unable to reach your place of employment because of a quarantine or stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic;

• You are unable to reach your place of employment because you have been advised by a health care provider to self-isolate or quarantine because you are positive for or may have had exposure to someone who has or is suspected of having COVID-19;

• You were scheduled to start a new job and do not have an existing job or are unable to reach the job as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic;

• You have become the breadwinner/major supporter for a household because the head of your household has died as a direct result of COVID-19;

• You had to quit your job due to being diagnosed with COVID-19 and being unable to perform your work duties;

• Your place of employment is closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• You worked as an independent contractor with reportable income and COVID-19 has severely limited your ability to continue performing your work activities and/ or has forced you to suspend such activities for one of the above COVID-19 reasons.

• You have been denied continued unemployment benefits because you  refused to work or accept an offer of work at a worksite that, is not in compliance with local, state, or national health and safety related to Covid-19.  These health and safety measures include, but are not limited to, facial mask wearing, physical distancing measures, or the provision of personal protective equipment consistent with public health guidelines.

• You provide services to an educational institution or educational service agency and are unemployed or partially unemployed because of volatility in the work schedule that is directly caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency.  This includes, but is not limited to, changes in schedules and partial closures; or

• Your work hours have been reduced or you have been laid off as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

​An application specific for PUA claims is available at www.uc.pa.gov, select "File for PUA."

​Federal guidelines for PUA define "self-employed individuals" as those whose primary reliance for income is on the performance of services in the individual's own business or on the individual's own farm.

For the purposes of PUA, "self-employed" includes independent contractors, gig economy workers, and workers for certain religious entities.

In Pennsylvania, the determination of whether you are an "employee" or an "independent contractor" depends on the conditions of your work, not on what your employer tells you or how your employer has classified you.

To be considered an independent contractor, both of the following must be shown to the satisfaction of the department:

1. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the services involved, both under the contract of service and in fact, and
2. As to such services, the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

If an individual performs services in the construction industry, the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act (Act 72), imposes additional criteria that must be met for the individual to be recognized as an independent contractor. Under Act 72, all of the following requirements must be satisfied:

• The individual has a written contract to perform the services,

• The individual is free from control or direction over the performance of the services involved both under the contract of service and in fact, and

As to such services, the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

You may be eligible for PUA even if you have never worked before and

• you had a bona fide job offer to start working on a specific date and were unable to start due to one of the COVID-19 related reasons identified under Section 2102 of the CARES Act; OR
• your bona fide job offer was rescinded because of COVID-19; OR
• you have become the breadwinner or major supporter for a household because the head of the household has died as a direct result of COVID-19.

You may be eligible for PUA if your primary source of income is from work you do for your own business or on your own farm and you are unemployed or partially unemployed due to one of the COVID-19 related reasons in the CARES Act.

If an you do not provide proof of base period wages (calendar year 2019 wages) and you filed your PUA application in 2020, your weekly benefit amount will be reduced based on whichever is higher - the record of wages already on file or the minimum PUA weekly benefit amount. If you file your application in 2021, you must provide proof of base period wages for calendar year 2020.

You may submit additional documentation at any time during the Pandemic Assistance Period to substantiate wages earned or paid during your base period.

The amount of PUA benefits you will receive is based on your previous income reported. PUA benefits may not be more than the state's maximum weekly benefit rate for regular UC, which is $572 in Pennsylvania in 2020, when the program started. PUA benefits may not be less than half of the state's average weekly benefit amount. In Pennsylvania, the minimum PUA payment is $195.

All individuals collecting PUA will receive $300 per week from Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), in addition to weekly benefits as calculated above. You may be eligible for FPUC payments for benefit weeks beginning December 26, 2020 and ending September 4, 2021.

​A person may be overpaid benefits and owe money back to the Department if they receive benefits not in accordance with the law.  The Department conducts an investigation and makes a decision based on federal and state laws.  If it is determined that someone received benefits they were not entitled to receive, a determination will be issued to deny those benefits, and an overpayment will also be sent and established on the claim.

​Yes. Section 241 of the Continued Assistance Act, creates a new requirement for individuals to submit documentation substantiating employment or self-employment or planned employment/self-employment. Individuals who do not provide documentation substantiating employment/self-employment (or planned employment/self-employment) within the required timeframe are not eligible for PUA. The Department will update this FAQ with additional instructions.

​Acceptable documentation of wages can include but is not limited to:

• 2019 or 2020 tax returns (Depending upon the year in which you filed your PUA application);
• your 2019 or 2020 1099 form(s) (Depending upon the year in which you filed your PUA application);
• paycheck stubs;
• bank receipts;
• ledgers;
• contracts;
• invoices; and/or
• billing statements.

​Eligible, approved claimants who have no issues with their claim will receive their very first PUA payment – whether it's the backdated lump sum payment or a regular weekly payment – within one week or less after filing their first certification. 

Claimants will receive their regular weekly payments within three business days after filing their weekly certification.

​Claimants should manage everything through their PUA dashboard on the website through www.uc.pa.gov/PUA. Individuals can use their dashboard to check on their claim and payment status, upload documents, etc.

​This new website detects error messages or other issues and automatically alerts a member of the PUA team. Once this occurs, our team members will work to resolve the issue and the outcome will be available on that claimant's PUA website dashboard. Claimants experiencing any errors or issues while filing their weekly certifications should not immediately try to contact the PUA team or open a new claim, but rather should keep a close eye on their dashboard for a message/update.

Currently, questions about your claims should be emailed to UCPUA@pa.gov. You should expect to receive a response within 7 days. This email address is for PUA questions only. Any emails unrelated to PUA will not receive a response.

If you would like to speak about a PUA-related issue by phone, please call 855-284-8545, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Additional information can be found at the PUA website: www.uc.pa.gov/PUA.

Not to worry, to be eligible for PUA, an individual cannot be eligible for regular UC. For this reason, the Department actually recommends that all individuals apply for regular UC first to check whether there are any base year wages on record. If denied, the individual should then proceed to apply for PUA.

If you believe you are eligible for PUA and have already filed a UC claim, you may be denied from regular UC. A denial from regular UC will not affect your eligibility for PUA, which was created specifically for individuals who are not eligible for regular UC. After you receive your UC denial, you can file for PUA through the application created specifically for PUA claimants.

Yes, if you are eligible for PUA you are also eligible for $300 per week under the FPUC program. No additional forms or applications are required for FPUC. The $300 per week additional payment will be automatically added to your PUA benefit.

​The maximum length of time a person may collect PUA benefits is up to 79 weeks. Eligibility is based on your unemployment caused by one or more of the reasons listed in the FAQ "How do I know if I am eligible for PUA?"

PUA benefits will no longer be available after the week ending on September 4, 2021.

Please note, if you have received UC or EB benefits and then apply for PUA, any week of regular UC benefits or any week of state extended benefits (EB) collected since February 2, 2020 will be deducted from the 79 weeks of PUA.

​No. If you are able to telework with pay or declined an option to telework for the same number of hours, you are not eligible for PUA. 

​If you are working fewer hours due to COVID-19 reason from the CARES Act, it has resulted in a loss in income, and you are not eligible for regular UC, you may be eligible for PUA.

If you are receiving paid sick leave or other leave benefits, you are not eligible for PUA.

If you exhaust your paid leave but are unable to work for one or more of the COVID-19 related reasons listed in the FAQ "How do I know if I am eligible for PUA?," you may be eligible for regular UC or PUA at that time.

You may be eligible for PUA in this situation.

and, on the advice of a qualified medical health professional I was required to resign from my job in order to quarantine? 

You may be eligible for PUA in this situation.

Gig workers with reportable income may be eligible if:

• You are unemployed, partially employed, or unable or unavailable to work because of one of the COVID-19 related reasons in the CARES Act; and
• The COVID-19 pandemic has severely limited your ability to continue performing your customary work activities and you have had to suspend your work or you have experienced a significant diminution of work because of COVID-19.

Federal guidelines include specific eligibility criteria to gig workers who otherwise may not meet the eligibility requirements as "covered individuals" under PUA.

​Self-employed individuals, independent contractors, or gig workers who are unable to work because of COVID-19 and have had to suspend their work may be eligible for PUA.

​Self-employed individuals, independent contractors, and gig workers who are unable to work because of COVID-19 may be eligible for PUA. To learn more about eligibility requirements for PUA, please refer to the FAQ "How do I know if I am eligible for PUA?"

The US Department of Labor informed Pennsylvania that individuals serving penalty weeks on UC, PEUC, or EB cannot be eligible for PUA payments for the same weeks.  If you are in this situation and you opened a PUA claim in anticipation of the PUA benefits being available, simply stop filing weekly PUA claims to prevent your PUA overpayment from becoming larger.  If you are otherwise unemployed, you should continue filing for your regular UC (or PEUC or EB) benefits in order to serve the penalty weeks.

​If you are looking to have the effective date of your claim earlier than the week in which you opened your claim, you can call the PUA Call Center at 855-284-8545 OR you can send an email request to UCpua@pa.gov.

Email Backdating Request:

• Include "Back Date Request" in the subject line of the email

• Provide exact dates and how COVID affected your employment or self-employment for the additional weeks you wish to claim.

• Examples: I want to backdate to March 22nd because I have not worked since March 20th and where I worked has remained closed due to the Governor's closure orders." OR "I want to go back to March 15th because I had to temporarily close my business until June 6th due to the Governor's closure orders. Please note I don't need to claim as of June 7 because I have re-opened my business as of June 8." 

• Send only one email request as they will be processed as fast as possible and multiple requests will only delay our ability to process in a timely manner.
  

• For new PUA claims filed after December 26, 2020, backdating cannot be granted for any weeks earlier than December 6, 2020.