HARRISBURG, Pa. — As Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry began accepting applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits, some self-employed, independent contractors and gig workers ran into issues.
Some people are getting error messages when applying for PUA. One message says the applicant may be eligible to file a regular unemployment claim. It is a glitch in the application, the department is currently working to fix.
"There's a lot of rules we need to run somebody through," said Susan Dickinson, Office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy Director. "Our vendor is working on putting all those rules in so we can clearly see if someone if eligible or not."
While some people had problems, 50,000 Pennsylvanians were able to successfully file through PUA but, they won't see payments for a few weeks. The PUA application went live early to ensure everything goes smoothly when the full system and payments are rolled out in a few weeks.
"It's nice we're able to to get it up early to get through these issues and to make sure we've dotted all our i’s and crossed all our t's," said Dickson. "So, we can get through payments without a hitch."
The department says, people who successfully submitted applications through PUA receive a message stating they would only be receiving the minimum benefit rate. However, that too is a glitch in the system. The Dept. of L&I is aiming to have most of the glitches fixed by the end of the week.