Questions about unemployment in California keep rolling in, so in this column I’ll answer ones on how to get extended benefits when your first 26 weeks run out, when the state will require people on unemployment to begin looking for work and what the differences between COBRA and Cal-COBRA health care continuation are.

Q: I got laid off at the end of January and have been on unemployment ever since. On Monday I got an email that said, “You have received all benefits payable to you at this time. You cannot file another California unemployment insurance claim until your current benefit year ends.” Why is EDD cutting me off after 26 weeks? Your July 1 column said you can now get up to 59 weeks in California.

A: The Employment Development Department also started getting questions like this, so starting July 16, it added this information near the end of its weekly news release on jobless claims, EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy said:

“If you run out of the up to 26 weeks associated with a regular UI claim, another up to 13 weeks of benefits is available in the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) extension provided by the federal government until the end of the year.

“If you are still within your 12-month benefit period of your claim and you run out of benefits, the EDD will automatically file a PEUC claim for you and you should get a notice by mail 5-7 business days later with more information. For faster updates and to certify for benefits, check your UI Online account inbox.

“If your 12-month benefit period has expired and you run out of your benefits, you must reapply for benefits and the quickest way to do so is through UI Online.”

The EDD will first “check to see if you have earned enough wages to qualify for a new regular claim. If you don’t, you will get a $0 award notice in the mail on that new claim. But within a few days, you will get another notice showing that we automatically filed a PEUC extension for you and advising you that you need to certify for benefits. You can also check your UI Online account for updates.”

At the end of this 13-week extension, if you are still unemployed, you could be eligible for a “Fed-Ed” extension for up to 20 more weeks. The EDD “is sweeping the system daily to identify” people who meet the “slightly different eligibility requirements” for Fed-Ed. If you qualify, the EDD will automatically file a Fed-Ed extension and mail you a notice. You will then need to complete the usual biweekly certification.

If you don’t qualify for a Fed-Ed extension you “will receive a notice about that disqualification but the EDD will proactively reopen their PUA claim if they already had one established.” PUA, which stands for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, is a federal program that provides unemployment benefits for people who don’t qualify for or have run out of regular state unemployment benefits. “For those who have not previously established a PUA claim, the Department will proactively file a PUA claim in order to help maintain the availability of benefits.”

Q: At what point will EDD require a benefit recipient to actively look for work in order to keep receiving payments?

A: This has not been decided. “We’re still in a situation of businesses closed down so answering ‘No’ to whether or not you are looking for work won’t prevent payment at this point. But, an individual does have to remain able and available to work,” Levy said in an email.

She added: “We noticed a lot of people were making mistakes on the first two questions of the bi-weekly certification for benefits, unnecessarily delaying benefits, so we included some additional text in the UI Online certification app.” For more tips, go to bit.ly/eddcoronavirusclaims and under Step 2, click on the drop-down menu titled “What mistakes can I avoid when I certify so my payments aren’t delayed?”

Q: My husband lost his job with a six-person company due to the COVID pandemic and is being offered continuation of health benefits through Cal-COBRA. We are interested in the possible extension of the 60 days in which you typically have to sign up for COBRA. Your June 13 article said recent Department of Labor guidance gives laid-off workers much more time to choose and pay for COBRA coverage. Is Cal-COBRA also subject to the Department of Labor change or do they operate independently?

A: The new Labor Department rules do not apply to Cal-COBRA, because it’s a state law.

COBRA, on the other hand, is a federal law officially called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It lets most employees who quit or lose their job stay on their former employer’s medical, dental or vision plan, generally for up to 18 months. They almost always have to pay the full premium themselves, plus an administrative fee. Federal COBRA generally applies to group health plans maintained by private-sector employers with 20 or more employees, and by state or local government employers.

Cal-COBRA applies to state-regulated health plans offered by employers with two to 19 employees. It lets their ex-employees stay in the group health plan, again at their own expense, for up to 36 months.

Cal-COBRA also lets eligible people who exhaust federal COBRA stay in their old group health plan for an additional 18 months. However, Cal-COBRA does not cover self-insured employers (those who pay employee medical costs themselves) because their plans are not state-regulated. So their former workers cannot move from federal to Cal-COBRA after 18 months. Many nonprofits and large companies self-insure, whether their workers know it or not.

Normally, once people receive a notice that they’re eligible for COBRA or Cal-COBRA (or to move from federal to Cal-COBRA), they have 60 days to enroll and 45 days after enrolling to begin paying premiums.

Because of the pandemic, the Labor Department gave COBRA-eligible employees a longer time period to enroll in COBRA and pay premiums. The new deadline is 60 days after the national COVID-19 emergency declaration ends or March 1, whichever comes first. My previous column explained how people might use this longer period to their advantage.

Unfortunately, the state has not extended the time frame for Cal-COBRA, so the old deadlines still apply, according to state regulators.

If you lose your job or have certain other life-changing events, you can enroll in health care through Covered California within 60 days, even if it’s outside the annual enrollment period. Because of the pandemic, Covered California is letting any eligible individual apply through the end of July, even if they had no life-changing event.

Congress could add a subsidy for COBRA premiums in its next coronavirus bill. The House-passed Heroes Act would provide a 100% subsidy for laid-off workers through Jan. 31. Republicans are expected to unveil their stimulus plan Monday.

For more information on Cal-COBRA, see bit.ly/calcobrahelp.