PEUC is available to regular Unemployment Insurance claimants whose benefits have expired and are not eligible for regular unemployment in any state. Regular UI is available for up to 26 weeks. PEUC adds a 13-week extension to eligibility.
Those receiving PEUC benefits also receive the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) payments of $600 per week for the weeks they receive PEUC payments (if they are from 03/29/20 to 07/24/20).
All PEUC, FPUC and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) payments are 100% federally funded, meaning employers will not be charged for benefits paid.
The PEUC program is effective beginning March 29, 2020. Claimants who were unemployed at that time may be eligible to be paid retroactively for the weeks they were unemployed back to March 29. However, those whose regular unemployment benefit year ended as far back as July 6, 2019, may be eligible for PUEC. Please note that though the benefits exhausted prior to March 29, 2020, payments for those claims cannot be made prior to that date.
The program ends as of Dec. 26, 2020.
Those receiving PEUC benefits must remain able, available and actively seeking work, though there are exceptions for those who are job-attached (meaning they have worked since the last time they filed an unemployment claim and will be going back to work within 12 weeks for the employer who laid them off and paid at least 50% of their base period wages) or if they are union attached and have intervening employment.
A walk-through of the process to file for PEUC is shown here.