Benefit Yr Ending & My Phone Call to Claims Center

Hey all! I spoke to two people from the unemployment claim center this morning and thought I would share the experience.

The reason I called is because my UI benefit year ends on 03/06/2021. My PEUC benefit year ends on 04/10/2021 and my PEB benefit year ends on 12/25/2021. I was concerned about everything going away on March 6 since that is the date that my UI benefit year ends.

I used up all of my regular UI last year, went on PEUC for 13 weeks, and then because that bill back in December was delayed, I automatically went onto PEB and have been on it for 10 weeks. I still have money left in my PEUC "account," due to the bill being signed after the deadline in December, but cannot get back onto it until my PEB has run out. If PEUC is not extended again, then I just have to take the loss and use up PEB until it's gone. If it is extended again, however, I will automatically roll back onto it and be able to use it until the new end date. This has been confirmed by the second representative I spoke to this morning.

Okay, so. I called at 8:00 AM and was on hold for just under 30 minutes. I asked the representative if I am going to need to file a new claim on March 7 since my UI benefit year ends on March 6, or if my extended benefits will continue as is. She was completely unsure, put me on hold several times in attempts to reach out to her manager, and ended up giving me a call back because the manager was unavailable. I missed the call and received a voicemail that told me to file a new claim starting March 7. There was no other information included, so I called back with follow up questions.

Luckily, the woman I spoke to on the phone the second time was very confident and quick in her answers. She told me to absolutely NOT file a new claim. Because I've already used my UI funds, that benefit year end date does not matter and that I should consider that portion of my unemployment done and over with.

She informed me that the system recognizes the benefit year end date of whatever program I am currently using, which is PEB. Because of this, it will give me the option to continue filing weekly claims until all PEB funds have been used (or the end date is reached, whichever comes first).

If there is another extension, whether that be of PEUC again or an entirely new program, the system will place me on that extension after my PEB funds have been used. The system will then recognize the NEW benefit year end date of the now current extension and it's the same process; just continue making weekly claims until either the funds run out or the end date has been reached.

I apologize if this is unorganized. My brain is mush, but I thought this might help somebody else out with the whole benefit year confusion. Because I received two different responses from two different representatives, I feel like there is no way to know if ANY information I received is correct, but I am certainly going to follow the advice of the second person I spoke to. Also, please keep in mind that this is just my experience. I haven't found any information on the ESD website that confirms what either of these people have told me. Also note that the only programs we talked about were regarding UI, PEUC, and PEB. I know nothing about PUA and did not ask any questions about it. Anyway, it might not be until the week of March 8 that I find out, but I will respond to this thread as soon as I have an update as to whether things go smoothly, if I get paid as usual, etc.