The secretary of the Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH), Briseida Torres Reyes, announced the availability of new unemployment benefits in Puerto Rico that, among other things, will allow covering workers on their own account, while increasing the weekly amount eligible employees may receive for these benefits.
The head of the agency confirmed that Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced signed the agreement with the United States Department of Labor that allows activation, and all that remains is for the federal government to establish the guidelines and processes for implementing the benefits, to make them effective and available to workers.
“These new benefits will allow us to serve all the workers who require the services of the unemployment program, including independent and self-employed contractors who are not usually covered by this program, and also existing beneficiaries who were close to exhaust their benefits and that they may receive an extension to them “explained Torres Reyes about the aid included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act, for its acronym in English.
Among the new unemployment-related benefits for Puerto Rico stands out an increase in the weekly amount that eligible workers could receive, which would increase for four months by $ 600 the weekly maximum for up to four months, going from the current $ 190 to a maximum of $ 790 weekly . In addition, the statute grants an additional 13 weeks extension to unemployment benefits, which is currently 26 weeks, until December 31, 2020.
Likewise, Torres Reyes stressed the importance of creating a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program that will allow the same benefits to be granted to self-employed workers who require it, and who are not eligible for the unemployment insurance program. local level.
“The program covers employees of insured employers and therefore self-employed workers are not eligible. But in the face of this emergency, and as it has happened in other situations such as hurricanes and earthquakes, the federal government has extended the benefits to independent and self-employed contractors, to help them face the lack of income from their jobs during this period, and whose benefits they will be similar to those established for the regular program while the current situation lasts, ”said the DTRH secretary.
The Unemployment Insurance program is available to any full-time or part-time employee who works for an insured employer registered with DTRH, who has been involuntarily affected by income, and who is not receiving compensation or license payments . In addition, employees who continue to provide jobs remotely, and collect their wages for them, are not eligible for unemployment.
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