Act 30 of 2009 (House Bill 1770) will help thousands of unemployed Pennsylvanians at risk of exhausting their unemployment benefit by tapping federal stimulus money to extend emergency unemployment benefits in Pennsylvania by seven more weeks, for a total of 79 weeks of benefits.

At the end of July, 200 Lycoming County residents exhausted their unemployment benefits. This extension provides these people and thousands of other unemployed residents a much-needed financial safety net to carry them through while they continue to look for work. The cost to Pennsylvania businesses is nothing, since federal stimulus money will pay for the benefit extension.

The new law immediately helped 20,000 Pennsylvanians who were out of work and had already exhausted their benefits. By the end of the year, it could help as many as 60,000 people retain their unemployment benefits.