COLOMBIA, SC – Over the weekend, South Carolina exceeded $ 5 billion in benefits distributed over 10 months to assist workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
That represents an average of $ 500 million a month since March, according to the state’s Department of Employment and Workforce.
The $ 5 billion represents assistance from state and federal programs.
Funds began to flow on Friday for the extension of the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation of the federal Continuing Assistance Act.
“When you don’t know how you’re going to provide anything to anyone, it’s a horrible feeling,” said Irmo’s mother, Whitney Miracle, 41. “It is a defeat.”
Miracle lost her job last March, when the pandemic struck, and she was unable to find work. When South Carolina’s extended benefits program expired on December 12, she said she had no money to pay the bills.
“To have this unemployment support to just drop out, you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” said Miracle. “That’s scary.”
But the PEUC extension will provide her with an additional 13 weeks of payments. She received her first deposit on Thursday night.
“We saw that our payments had been made, so I was overjoyed,” she explained. “It was a blessing to go through this.”
DEW says it received no guidance from the Department of Labor on how to implement the three federal programs until January 3. Chief of Staff Jamie Suber says the program is very technical and that the agency had to work with its supplier to ensure people would be paid correctly.
“We know that people are harming people in need, but I know that, in relation to the states that implement programs, we are leading the group,” said Suber. “We are one of the pioneering states in terms of launching all three programs as quickly as we did.”
DEW paid more than $ 49 million in one day. If you believe you are eligible for PEUC, but have not yet been paid, DEW says that you need to log in to your portal and ensure that you have been certified every week since January 2nd. You will receive money until you do this.
WIS also asked DEW what people should do if their account has a pending notice.
“Please contact us,” said Suber. “Obviously, we are still seeing a high volume of calls on Mondays and Tuesdays, but we still talk to us. We will do everything we can to research your query and provide you with a resolution as soon as possible. “
Suber says the agency has seen an increase in calls over the past three weeks, but he says he still has 450 call center employees ready to help.
This PEUC extension is the third and final program that DEW had to implement. The first program, an extension of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program, was launched on January 4. This provides an extra $ 300 per week for those receiving benefits. The extension of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which offers benefits to self-employed and temporary workers, was launched on 8 January.
DEW also notes that there are currently 75,000 jobs available published on the SC Works website. You can access this site by clicking this link.
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