Jobless help extended 14 more weeks

Utah workers may qualify for yet another 14 weeks of Emergency Unemployment Compensation, in addition to the 13-week extension announced two weeks ago.

Utah provides up to 26 weeks of regular state unemployment benefits. The EUC benefits have been expanded several times and now authorize up to an additional 47 weeks of emergency federal benefits once the regular state benefits have been used, for a total of as many as 73 weeks, including the expansion that President Barack Obama just signed.

The unemployment-insurance program in Utah is administered by the Department of Workforce Services.

The department plans to notify unemployed Utah workers who may be eligible for the extension by sending out letters, starting this week. Generally, total extended weeks of EUC benefits equal 184 percent of the total amount received for regular state unemployment, said unemployment-insurance director Bill Starks. In Utah, that's up to 47 weeks.

More than 16,000 unemployed Utah workers have exhausted their original emergency benefits. Starks said eligible claimants should use the Internet to file for the extended benefits because of the high volume of calls expected this week.

Benefit claims can be filed online at jobs.utah.gov, or you can phone one of the state claim centers: Salt Lake/South Davis Counties at 801-526-4400, Weber/North Davis counties at 801-612-0877, Utah County at 801-375-4067, and elsewhere in the state and out-of-state at 888-848-0688.

—Lois M. Collins