As you know on March 27, 2020, the President signed the CARES Act to expand unemployment insurance benefits and other economic relief measures aimed at reducing the economic impact of the novel coronavirus 2019 (“COVID-19”) pandemic and authorizes $2.1 trillion in aid to various sectors of the economy. This economic relief package is in addition to the Family First Corona Virus Response Act.

• Expands eligibility for those not eligible for regular, extended benefits, or Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation including self-employed individuals, independent contractors, those with limited work histories, and those unable to work due to the enumerated CoVid-19 related reasons;
• Extends state unemployment benefits by 13 Weeks of federally funded benefits added to the end of regular unemployment benefits; and
• Provides for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUD) of $600 weekly in addition to regular state benefits.

• Individual Claims are filed by an individual terminated by their employer with no return to work date. These typically take a couple of weeks to process. Employment and wages must be verified, and weekly benefit amount determined by the claims processor at GDOL.
• Employer Filed Claims (also called partials) are filed by the employer on behalf of their employee. These claims take 48-72 hours to process. This process is much quicker and is mandated by the State for employees temporarily laid off or those who have had their hours reduced due to COVID-19.