Welcome to the Pandemic Unemployment Application or PUA tutorial in the State of Florida. This tutorial will walk you through the steps necessary to seccesfully complete your PUA application in the connect system.
This tutorial is only intended for those who have applied and/or received a pin for the connect system.
What is PUA ?
PUA is a federal program that pays benefits to individuals not elegible for state Reemployment Assistance (RA) benefits, who have become unemployed as the direct result of a pandemic.
Before Applying for PUA
If you have not filed at all and you believe you are elegible for state or federal benefits, please visit: http://www.floridaobs.org to complete an application.
If you filed a claim prior to April 5, 2020, and received a monetary determination of “Ineligilbe”, you will need to re-apply for state Reemployment Assitance to determine if you are now monetarily elegible for state benefits; if not you will receive a message in CONNECT to apply for PUA.
If you filed a claim on or after April 5, 2020, and CONNECT has given you a monetary determination of “Ineligible”, then you should check CONNECT for a message to apply for PUA.
Once processed, you will receive a message in your CONNECT portal to apply for PUA only if you received a monetary determination of “Inelegible”.
Applying for PUA Benefits
This section provides instructions on how to apply for PUA benefits in CONNECT. Please remember, if you have not yet applied for Reeunemployment Assistance benefits in CONNECT, you must apply for benefits first.
To begin an application for PUA, click the Apply for PUA Benefits hyperlink on the top left of your CONNECT home page.
On the next section, answer whether you´re filing as result of COV-19, select your County from the dropdown menu and then click Next.
Contact Information
In this section you will verify thath your existing contact information in CONNECT is correct and then click Next. If edits need to be made click the edit button at the bottom of the page. Complete the edits and then click Next.
Payment Method
On this section you will need to confirm your payment method and tax withholding options are correct and then click Next. Again if edits need to be made click the edit button. Complete the edits and then click Next.
Questions
On this section of the application you will need to answer all the required questions and complete all required fields to move forward. If you fail to complete any required fields the system will alert you with an error message at the top of the page. When all required fields have been completed, click Next.
Identify Affected Employment
In this section you will need to select checkbox nex to all employment that was affected by the pandemic then add any employment, if needed, or click button stating that all afected employment is listed. Then, click Next.
If needed add any additional affected employment by selecting the employment or scheduled employment not listed radio button and provide all necessary information. However if all afected employment is listed and selected click the radio button stating that all affected employmentis listed.
Base period employers
On this screen you will need to review all your base period employment and add any missing employment by using the dropdown menu at the bottom of the screen. Once complete click Next.
Annual Income
On this screen report your income by selecting the appropiate form from the dropdown menu, answer the question on oint filing and then click Next.
Information
Here you will need to enter you annual income information and clik Next.
Eligibility Information
Here you will need to answer all the required eligibility information questions. Click Next.
A series of acknowledgement statements
On this section you will see a series of acknowledgement statements. Click the checkboxes next to each statement to agree and then click Next.
Review and Confirm Application
Next you will need to review the application and modify any necessary information. Then click the chekbox next to the acknowledgement statement and enter you social security number. Then, scroll down to the bottom of the screen.
Finally, once the application has been reviewed, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Submit.
PUA Claim Confirmation
The confirmation screen has the time and date stamp of the submission and a Preliminary Benefits Estimate. Then, click Next.
You PUA application has now been succesfully submitted. Continue to log back in to connecto to check the status of your claim. Thank you for taking the time to complete this tutorial.