On April 10, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) sent a letter to California Labor Secretary Julie A. Su urging the Employment Development Department to prioritize making the application for the new Pandemic Unem­ployment Assistance program publicly available as soon as possible. This federally funded program provides compensation to unemployed workers who are not eligible for regular state benefits – including self-employed, freelance, gig and contract workers – but EDD has not begun accepting PUA claims.

“I represent thousands of independent, freelance, contract and gig workers – including many in the entertainment industry – who often do not fully qualify for standard unemployment benefits,” Schiff wrote in the letter. “The CARES Act, which was signed into law two weeks ago, dramatically expands unemployment coverage, and I led an effort in the House to extend this coverage to nontraditional and independent workers. As states are now working to implement these expanded federal benefits, I am hearing from many of my newly eligible constituents who are concerned because they are not yet able to apply and who are increasingly worried as their financial responsibilities continue to mount without anticipated income.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced that workers who qualify for regular state benefits will receive the $600 CARES Act Pandemic Additional Comp­ensation payments beginning on April 12. However, because the application for Pandemic Unemployment Ass­istance is not yet available, thousands of self-employed, freelance, gig and contract workers newly eligible for federally funded PUA payments under the CARES Act have not yet been able to apply.

The state of California has processed 2.3 million unemployment insurance claims in the past four weeks. Applications for the most recent week were up 2,400% over 2019.