The Georgia Department of Labor (GADOL) e-mailed an update this week and we to share this with you. To ensure we are keeping you up to date with the latest information, regarding your business and employees, we wanted to provide you with key points.
EMPLOYERS WHO FILE UI FOR EMPLOYEES
Employers filing UI for employees, who are temporarily unemployed due to COVID-19, will not be charged for benefits paid to THOSE employees.
CARES ACT
For those individuals currently receiving state unemployment benefits, the GDOL started delivering the additional $600 weekly supplement from the federal stimulus bill this week. This includes many employees that have been temporarily laid off or had their hours reduced due to COVID-19 and, as part of the federal stimulus package, will not be charged back to employers. This supplement will be an additional payment to regular weekly state unemployment benefits and will include all eligible weeks beginning with the week ending 4/4/2020.
WHAT TO TELL YOUR EMPLOYEES
- Email the link to the COVID-19 Individual FAQs to your employees and review it yourself to help answer their questions.
- When you file the first week of claims, they will receive a Georgia Way2Go Debit MasterCard® within 7-10 days loaded with their first payment, unless they have direct deposit information on file with GDOL from a previous claim within the last 18 months.
- After the first week of claims, they can expect payment within 24-48 hours of you submitting their weekly claims.
- Do NOT tell your employees to claim their weekly benefits with GDOL. You are claiming their weekly benefits for them by filing each week.
- They can create a PIN online using UI Benefit Payment Methods after their claim is processed by GDOL.
- They can check the status of their claim and payments using My UI (Check My UI Claim Status). Their PIN is required.
- They can enroll in direct deposit using Benefit Payment Methods.
- They cannot enroll in direct deposit until AFTER the first claim is processed by GDOL.
- They can reset their PINs using Reset Your PIN
- They are exempt from work search requirements.
- Monitor dol.georgia.gov for ongoing updates.
*If you would like additional information on this topic or have HR / Payroll questions, please contact us info@sullivangrouphr.com