Employment Security Department - Washington State UPDATES
Per the ESDWAGOV website, as of 1/21/2021
ALERT: More weeks available for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)
Updated Jan. 21, 2020
Under the recent CARES Act extensions, an additional 11 weeks of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits were made available for eligible unemployment claimants.
We’re currently updating our system to include these new benefits and will begin processing the payments by the end of January.
We understand the delay in payments for some individuals has been frustrating and we appreciate your patience. The law around the additional PEUC benefits is very complex and we needed more guidance from the federal government before we could fully implement the additional weeks.
If you’ve been waiting for the additional PEUC payments, the most important thing you can do is continue submitting weekly claims. You’ll receive back payments for each week you were eligible.
Guidance for PEUC and Extended Benefits (EB) claimants
If you ran out of the original 13 weeks of PEUC and haven’t applied for EB yet, you should apply. You’ll receive EB benefits for any weeks you are eligible, including any past weeks. Look for “Request extended benefits” in the Alerts section in eServices.
If you ran out of the original 13 weeks of PEUC and EB, we are working quickly to update our system and expect to start processing payments for the additional 11 weeks of PEUC by the end of January. You should keep filing your weekly claims.
If you ran out of PEUC and EB before Dec. 26, 2020 (when the CARES Act expired), by law we can't pay you benefits for any weeks between when you ran out and when the new CARES Act extensions took effect. For example, if your PEUC and EB ran out the week ending Dec. 19, we are not permitted to pay you benefits for the week ending Dec. 26. You can submit weekly claims for the weeks ending Jan. 2 and after, until the extension ends. We will pay you for those weeks as long as you remain eligible. Keep filing your weekly claims. You’ll be paid retroactively for any weeks you were eligible.
More information is coming soon
We’ll be sending emails with further instructions to individuals who are impacted by the new PEUC benefits. Keep an eye out for these emails and any notices through your eServices account. You can also check our website regularly at esd.wa.gov/covid-faq for updates and frequently asked questions.
