Unemployment acronyms for benefits in Minnesota are getting out of hand. Here is why. Minnesota uses a combination of numbers and letters that makes little sense.
At a minimum, abbreviations should use letters that are easily recognizable. For example, MN for Minnesota. The reason that acronyms or UI codes are critical is because they help applicants understand the rule set assigned to their case. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case with Minnesota’s UI system. Not so in Minnesota.
“DUA or disaster unemployment assistance is another acronym that means PUA”
Minnesota’s online benefit system uses specific letters that align with an unemployment law assigned to an applicant’s case. For this reason, knowing the code can be extremely helpful.
Most applicants logging into their online system do not recognize this issue because it isn’t noticeable unless you are purposely seeking it out.
6 Categories of UI Acronyms
In general, there are six categories of benefit programs in Minnesota. Here are the unemployment acronyms for each category:
- Regular State Unemployment Insurance (STUI)
- Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC)
- Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA)
- Trade Readjustment Assistance (TRA)
- Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA)
- Inactive Program Types
Regular State Unemployment Insurance
Prior to COVID-19, most benefit claims were considered regular insurance benefits and identified as STUI or Standard Unemployment Insurance.
Really, this category is the default benefit category. Because of the Pandemic, lots of applicants have miscategorized claims.
In other words, lots of persons applied for benefits for reasons related to COVID and incorrectly had their case identified as STUI. Thus, knowing and seeing this as an issue can be extremely helpful.
Emergency Unemployment Compensation
The unemployment acronym E024 is another way of saying Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC. Wow, that may look really confusing, but it is worth knowing.
PEUC is confusing because the UI Office in Minnesota, in their infinite wisdom created three different codes to identify the same thing.
- EUC = Emergency Unemployment Compensation
- E024 and PEUC = Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.
For somebody just trying to collect their benefits and move onto their job search process, this confusion can add stress. However, the key takeaway is the following: PEUC is not the same thing as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
Disaster Unemployment Assistance
DUA or disaster unemployment assistance means PUA. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is the process of applying for benefits because a job ended as a result of COVID-19.
To make things even more interesting, the unemployment system also uses D002 to mean PUA. As a summary, this is what applicants may see inside their account:
- DUA = Disaster Unemployment Assistance
- D002 or PUA = Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
Trade Readjustment Assistance (TRA)
TAA and TRA benefits is an unemployment code that most applicants will not encounter. Nonetheless, here are the acronyms to know:
- BSIC = Basic Trade Readjustment Allowance
- ADDL = Additional Trade Readjustment Allowance
- RMDL = Remedial Trade Readjustment Allowance
- CMPL = Completion Trade Readjustment Allowance
Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA)
Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance is an unemployment program limited to a select group of individuals. In general, this benefit is a wage subsidy for applicants 50 years of age and older and they do not earn more than $50,000.
Inactive Programs in Minnesota
Finally, the following list of acronyms are those that were formerly used by the unemployment office.
Even though most of these programs were used between the years 2007 and 2009, they usually come up during an audit or overpayment.
- D001 = Disaster Unemployment Assistance
- E001 = Ainsworth Lumber Company extension
- E002 = Clearwater County extension
- E003 = Kanabec County extension
- E004 = Ainsworth Lumber Company extension
- E006 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier One
- E007 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier Two
- E008 = Special State Emergency Unemployment Compensation
- E009 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier One
- E010 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier Two
- E011 = Federal-State Extended Benefits
- E012 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier Two
- E013 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier Three
- E014 = Federal-State Extended Benefits
- E015 = Federal-State Extended Benefits
- E016 = Special State Extended Unemployment Insurance
- E017 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier One
- E018 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier One
- E019 = State Additional Benefits – Lockout
- E020 = Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Tier One
- E023 = Iron Mining Related
