The school year is ending. Can parents continue to get pandemic unemployment benefits?
Parents who had to stop working or trim their hours so they could take care of children due to closed schools have been eligible for special federal unemployment benefits — as long as the school year lasted.
Now the school year is about to end, and federal guidelines are somewhat vague as to whether the benefits can continue.
Chances are they will for most people.
California officials and private experts advise that if the facility they rely on for summer child care is closed as a result of COVID-19, parents with reduced hours or suffering layoffs should be able to keep getting payments under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in California.
But there’s still a question lingering: Do parents have to prove they both rely on the facility and that it’s closed? The guidelines say little about other circumstances parents may be enduring in order to stay home with the kids.
“There’s been a lot of confusion about who is covered with the initial PUA rollout and shifting federal guidance. Now, there are many unanswered questions about what will happen when school ends,” said Kathryn Edwards, associate economist and employment law expert at the Rand Corporation.
PUA is an emergency federal program that since late March has provided benefits to people who ordinarily would not qualify for regular state unemployment insurance. Self-employed people, gig workers who are independent contractors and others can get PUA.
In California, they can quickly receive $767 a week and could get up to $1,050 a week depending on their 2019 income. Those amounts include a $600 a week benefit that ends at the end of July.
The program allows parents who have to stop working, or work fewer hours, so they can stay home with children whose schools were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak to qualify for the aid.
California follows the federal guidelines when assessing the claims of whether parents get, and continue to get, the emergency benefits.
“Parents could potentially be eligible to continue receiving PUA if the facility that the individual relies on to provide child care during the summer is also closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency,” said Loree Levy, spokeswoman for the Employment Development Department, which manages California’s unemployment program.
Once the school year is over, she said, the state will follow federal guidance advising that “parents should rely on their customary arrangements for caring for their children during the summer.”
If the facility, such as a summer camp, that the parent relies on is closed for coronavirus-related reasons, is closed, the parents may be eligible to continue receiving benefits. Or they could get benefits if there’s some other federal coronavirus-related reason for being out of work, such as being laid off from a job because their employer had to close.
What had alarmed some activists was an April 5 advisory from the U.S. Labor Department telling states they should “bear in mind that many of the qualifying circumstances (for PUA) are likely to be of short term duration.”
Among its examples were “a school is not closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency...after the date the school year was originally scheduled to end.”
There was some relief when, a month later, another Labor Department advisory addressed the benefit offered to someone who is a primary caregiver for a child unable to attend a school closed as a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak.
In a Q and A, the department asked, “Does this apply during the summer months when school is not usually in session?”
Its answer: “After the 2019-2020 school year was originally scheduled to end, a school is no longer considered closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency…”
“Once the regular 2019-2020 school year is over, parents should rely on their customary summer arrangements for caring for their children. Absent some other qualifying circumstances, the individual will not be eligible to receive PUA,” the department said.
But, it added, “if the facility that the individual relies on to provide summer care for the child is also closed as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, he or she may continue to qualify for PUA.”
That just stoked more confusion. “It was meant to be a clarifier, which it wasn’t,” said Michele Edwards, senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.
A Labor Department spokesman said implementation is up to the states.
Ultimately, said Evermore, parents are likely to continue getting their benefits if they have to give up work to stay home with children this summer.
While the Labor Department advisory just added to the confusion, she figured “I can’t imagine a state agency asking a parent to produce documentation” proving that, for instance, the summer camp a child attended last summer is not closed.
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