IMPORTANT INFORMATION: If you have already applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, refer to our step-by-step chart for what to expect through the course of your claim for receiving benefit payments as long as you’re eligible.
As part of the federal CARES Act, the federal government has approved funding for additional UI benefits to workers impacted by COVID 19, including the self-employed. The EDD has received only overarching information from the U.S. Department of Labor but needs further details to finish building the programming for implementing these changes.
Visit this page for more details on these provisions as they become available: the additional $600 on top of the current weekly benefit amount, a new 13-week extension of benefits paid for by the federal government when someone exhausts their regular UI claim, and a brand new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program which will help the self-employed. The EDD is working quickly with state partners to set up this new program as we await final guidance from the federal government.