The self-employed, freelancers and others who have lost work during the coronavirus pandemic but didn’t qualify for regular unemployment insurance may be getting relief this week.
According to a release from the Arizona Department of Economic Security, the agency has started mailing checks to 165,000 individuals who filed for unemployment assistance between Feb. 2 and May 2 and didn’t qualify for regular unemployment but were determined to qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program created by the CARES Act to expand financial assistance to workers not covered by existing unemployment programs.
The expanded unemployed assistance under the PUA program is intended to cover independent contractors, gig economy workers, freelance workers and those seeking part-time work, plus others, according to the CARES Act.
The checks mailed this week include an “initial payment representing the minimum PUA benefit amount [$117 per week] plus the additional $600 in weekly benefits added by the CARES Act. These first payments will include three-weeks’ worth of benefits,” a DES release stated.
The initial payments represent a total dispersal of $350 million to out-of-work Arizonans.
The CARES Act legislation tasked states with administering the PUA payments, so Arizona has been scrambling to unroll the system since the CARES ACT was signed.
DES announced on April 24 that it had hired an outside vendor, Geographic Solutions Inc., to assist with implementing the PUA program and expediting payments.
Self-employed, freelance and other workers who have lost work and have not applied for unemployment assistance can apply online at azui.com.
DES also announced that unemployment insurance claimants who were paid between Thursday, May 7, and Monday, May 11, did not receive the additional $600 weekly Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payment benefit. This includes all individuals who filed an eligible weekly certification Wednesday, May 6, through Sunday, May 10, as well as individuals who had their previous claims determined eligible for payment during that same timeframe.
DES is working to correct the error and claimants can expect to receive the missed payments between Wednesday and Friday of this week.
