9 & 10 News February 1, 2021 The Cares Act was temporarily interrupted in December, which many businesses relied on throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the Continued Assistance Act is extending that and allowing for 11 additional weeks of benefits. Anyone who claimed benefits using the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation is eligible. PUA New PUA claims can now be filed online at michigan.gov/uia. PUA claimants who exhausted their original entitlement of benefits prior to Dec. 26, 2020 can also now reopen their claim to receive an additional 11 weeks of benefits, payable retroactively, beginning with the week ending Jan. 2, 2021. Claimants have or will receive notification by email, through their MiWAM account or by mail alerting them to the availability of the additional weeks.