The Biden administration expanded unemployment insurance eligibility Thursday to include workers who refused job offers at unsafe worksites, making good on a pledge to reduce the pressure on people who say they have been forced to choose between staying healthy or getting a paycheck, the Washington Post reported. The Department of Labor made the shift Thursday in response to a January executive order from President Biden that broadened the eligibility of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to include workers whose unemployment benefits were denied because they refused to return to workplaces that were not in compliance with coronavirus health and safety standards or turned down positions because of those concerns. The change in eligibility goes into effect immediately, but officials cautioned that it could take at least a month, if not longer, for workers’ claims to be approved, given the significant delays that have plagued state unemployment agencies. Workers eligible under the new guidelines will receive backdated payments for unemployment claims dating to the beginning of the pandemic, when the PUA program was created to help gig workers, self-employed workers and others who stopped working to take care sick of a sick relative or take care of a school-aged child. They will also be eligible for the supplemental $600 a week bonus that the federal government has approved through the end of July.
