June 22, 2020

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska will begin offering the Extended Benefits (EB) program for eligible individuals who exhaust their previous unemployment benefits.

Under federal law, the EB program offers up to an additional 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted any regular unemployment benefits and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits for which they were eligible. Eligibility criteria is available here: https://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/UIPL/UIPL_24-20.pdf

Nebraska’s most recent insured unemployment rate (IUR) of 5.27% triggered the state onto a 13-week EB period beginning the week of June 14. Other states are also offering EB based on their insured unemployment rate.

NDOL will notify individuals of their eligibility for the program and will issue application instructions. The weekly benefit amount (WBA) under the EB program will be the same as the individual received for regular unemployment compensation. 

Nebraska’s most recent EB program was triggered in January of 1981.

More information on Extended Benefits is available here: https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/extenben.asp

Previous NDOL press releases are available here:  https://dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease