Welcome to the Employment Development Department

Federal-State Extended Duration Benefits (FED-ED)

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On March 27, 2009, the Governor signed legislation that would allow unemployed workers in California to potentially receive up to another 20 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. This is an additional extended benefit program known as the FED-ED extension.

FED-ED extensions are now available to potentially eligible claimants who have run out of UI benefits on their regular UI claim, first federal extension and second federal extension.

If you have collected all the benefits on your second federal extension and the last week paid was for a week ending on or after February 21, 2009, and before April 5, 2009, you will be notified by mail that FED-ED extensions are available. The notice will advise you to file online.

If you have collected all the benefits on your second federal extension and the last week paid was for a week ending on or after April 11, 2009, the EDD will automatically file your FED-ED extension. You will not have to contact the EDD to apply for the FED-ED extension.

After your FED-ED extension is filed, you will receive the appropriate claim forms and notification regarding the FED-ED benefits. You are required to complete and mail the claim form on the date shown on the front of the form.

Federal and State law does not allow payments to be made on a FED-ED extension if you are qualified first to file a new regular UI claim. This may occur if you’ve earned additional wages from an employer since the time you last filed for regular UI benefits. UI staff will be reviewing wage records when processing your claim.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR FED-ED

You may be potentially eligible for FED-ED benefits if you meet all of the following criteria:

  • Are fully or partially unemployed on or after February 22, 2009.
  • Have exhausted your entitlement to a regular UI claim (up to 26 weeks of benefits).
  • Have collected all benefits on your first federal extension (up to 20 weeks of benefits).
  • Have collected all benefits on your second federal extension for weeks ending on or after February 21, 2009 (Up to 13 weeks of benefits).
  • Are not qualified to file a new regular UI claim.
  • Meet all eligibility criteria.

HOW TO FILE

Once you have collected all benefits on your first and second federal extensions, you may be eligible to file for FED-ED benefits. If you are eligible to file a FED-ED extension, the Department will automatically file it and send you additional continued claim forms. No action is required on your part as long as you have been continuously collecting benefits.

BENEFIT AMOUNT OF A FED-ED CLAIM

If you are eligible for FED-ED:

  • Your weekly benefit amount will be the same as your regular UI claim;

    AND
  • Your maximum benefit amount will be 80 percent of the maximum benefit amount on your regular UI claim.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

If you are eligible to file a FED-ED extension, you must follow additional eligibility requirements in order to receive your weekly payments. It is required that you:

  • Look for work every week as previously instructed by the Department.
  • Fill out Section B on the back of the Continued Claim form with your work search information for each week. Typically, individuals have been instructed to seek full-time work (or in some cases, part-time work) and are required to report contact with a minimum of three employers per week.
  • Accept any offer for work you are capable of performing if the weekly gross pay would be equal to or greater than the weekly benefit amount on your FED-ED extension. You may be disqualified for benefits if you do not accept the job.

    For example:
    • The weekly benefit amount on your FED-ED extension is $450. You are offered a job working 40 hours per week at $11.25 per hour. You must accept that job offer because your total earnings for one week would be equal to the weekly benefit amount on your FED-ED claim ($11.25 x 40 = $450).
    • The weekly benefit amount on your FED-ED claim is $320. You are offered a job working 20 hours per week at $8 per hour. You do not have to accept that job offer because your total earnings for one week would be less than the weekly benefit amount on your FED-ED claim ($8 x 20 = $160).

DISQUALIFICATIONS

Failure to look for work or accept suitable work will result in a disqualification for benefits. If you are disqualified from receiving FED-ED benefits because you did not look for work or you refused to accept work, the requirements to remove the disqualification are different than the requirements to remove a disqualification from a regular UI claim or other extension claims. If you are disqualified for either refusing work or failing to look for work, you will not be eligible to collect FED-ED benefits. To remove the disqualification you must return to work for a minimum of four weeks and earn four times the weekly benefit amount of your FED-ED extension.

A further requirement of FED-ED is that if you were disqualified for other UI benefits prior to filing a FED-ED claim, because you refused work, or you were fired or quit a job, you will not be eligible to collect FED-ED benefits unless you have worked a specific amount of time and/or earned a specific amount of wages since being disqualified.

FUNDING

FED-ED payments are entirely funded from the Federal General Fund for most employers, which means that these employers will not be charged for any benefits paid to claimants on FED-ED extensions filed with an effective date on or before December 20, 2009. Governmental entities and federally recognized Indian Tribes will be charged for 100% of FED-ED extension benefits paid.