This issuance replaces WS 17-16 and provides updated standards, guidelines, and procedures for our Back to Work service
Unemployment insurance claimants register with Workforce Solutions as a condition of receiving their benefits. We work with these customers (as we do with any others) to get them to a job as quickly as possible. Claimants usually have good skills and work history - they are likely good candidates for many of the current job openings we have available.
We contact a subset of claimants - individuals likely to exhaust their benefits before returning to work - and require them to interact with us.
Once we have called in a claimant, that individual must contact us or risk losing his or her unemployment insurance benefits.
A claimant may access the Back to Work page on our website to view information about Workforce Solutions and the many ways we can help.
The claimant must visit a Workforce Solutions office to complete the rapid re-employment/back to work process.
We recommend tagging claimants as WIOA dislocated workers for easier access to intensive career counseling and financial aid, including scholarships.
We serve a rapid re-employment claimant just like we do any other customer: we listen to the customer and offer our service and professional advice to help that customer get what he or she wants and needs. However, there are six required elements to rapid re-employment service, and we must ensure we address each element so that the claimant can continue to receive unemployment benefits. With the exception of providing information on Workforce Solutions, these elements must be completed with an in-person interaction/conversation with the customer.
Unemployment Insurance claimants must be able to work and be available to work. Staff must review eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance and have the customer sign the Back to Work Agreement.
Being able to work means that the customer is physically and mentally able to perform the work she is seeking. The claimant must have the health, endurance, and other physical and mental requirements necessary to perform suitable full-time work for which she is qualified or can readily learn to perform, and which exists in the job search area.
The customer must be available for full-time work to be eligible for unemployment benefits. Being available for work means that the claimant is ready, willing and able to accept any suitable full-time work. The claimant must:
Be willing and able to work all the days and hours required for the type of work the claimant is seeking
Be willing to accept the usual rate of pay for a person of the claimant’s qualifications and experience
If during the in-person interview the customer asks an unemployment insurance question, we help the customer connect with the Tele-Center for answers or help the customer begin the adjudication process if necessary.
Completion of an employment plan During our in-person interview with a customer, we must develop an employment plan with the customer that includes:
a specific employment goal developed in collaboration with the customer and tailored to the customer&rsquo;s individual needs;
the customer’s strengths and any factors that may negatively affect the customer’s ability to return to work;
detailed step-by-step activities to which the customer agrees to adhere, including reporting to and taking part in the career service most likely to result in reemployment or referral to career-related training;
specific dates for staff to follow up and evaluate each activity, provide more assistance, or adjust the dates, as necessary; and
A completed WorkInTexas.com registration We make sure the customer has a complete registration in WorkInTexas.com to help with referrals to open jobs.
Current and relevant labor market information. We give our professional advice and current information about jobs and job opportunities specifically for each customer. We make sure the information we give is tailored for the customer we’re talking to and not generic data.
Information about Workforce Solutions. At any time, and especially when asked by a customer, we talk about the range of our service and how we can help the customer get back to work. The customer can complete this requirement by reviewing the Back to Work page on wrksolutions.com.
At the customer’s request and/or in our professional judgement, we offer or suggest at least one of the following:
Job search help including referrals to open jobs, job development and placement; and access to Workforce Solutions job search seminars
Career readiness such as creating or updating resume, interview preparation, completing job applications
Career counseling, planning and information about and help obtaining financial aid, including scholarships for basic education, upgrade training, or education to change careers
After the first in-person interview with a claimant, staff will give each customer a customer service survey and encourage the customer to give us feedback.
Workforce Solutions will send a follow-up email to profiled claimant who completed an employment plan in the earlier month. This email will remind the customer of her interaction with Workforce Solutions and invite the customer to contact us for added help.
Workforce Solutions staff will also take the follow-up actions set out in the customer's employment plan. The customer and Workforce Solutions staff may change the plans for follow up by modifying the employment plan.
We encourage customers to return by giving high quality, professional service that has value for each customer.
Claimants and profiled claimants are customers just like any other. Listen carefully as a customer describes his wants and needs; ask good questions about skills, work history, employment goals, and needs for skill upgrading; and provide good professional advice to help a customer return to work.
Make sure that office managers, supervisors, and staff know the process for serving profiled claimants.
Make sure that office managers, supervisors, and staff know how to record service for profiled claimants in TWIST and WorkInTexas.com.
Staff should first ask questions of their supervisors first. Direct questions for Board staff through the electronic Issuance Q&A.
Career office tracking units generate the letters to claimants which call them in to Workforce Solutions. These letters give the customer instructions for contacting us to receive service. The customer can begin by:
Visiting a Workforce Solutions career office. Customers who choose to begin by visiting the Back to Work page must visit a Workforce Solutions office to complete the process.
Sometimes customers have situations or circumstances that inhibit their ability to report to us as required. A customer can reschedule if he/she contacts the career office referenced in her call-in letter before the originally scheduled date. A customer must give us a good reason for rescheduling, such as a scheduled job interview, a temporary transportation issue, or temporary child care issues.
Career office staff will have a process to assess a customer's request for rescheduling and respond quickly to the customer.
Additionally, staff must report potential issues about the customer's ability or availability to work if the reason provided by the customer prevents rescheduling within a short period of time.
Occasionally, while rescheduling a customer or conducting the UI eligibility assessment, a customer may report issues that indicate they may not be available and/or able to work.
Regardless of how a profiled customer contacts Workforce Solutions and staff completes service and the employment plan, we record our service in both WorkInTexas.com and TWIST.
Following are the requirements for recording rapid re-employment service. These requirements are in addition to the regular and usual information we include in a customer’s record.
Tag the profiled customer as a WIOA Dislocated Worker. You will need a photo ID to satisfy eligible to work status, and you will need to figure out if a male customer registered for Selective Service.
Note: If the customer does not have a photo ID or was required to but did not register for Selective Service, do not pursue tagging the customer as a WIOA Dislocated Worker unless the customer is requesting financial assistance.
Help the customer complete an Addendum or Financial Aid Application for easy access to financial assistance.
Record an employment plan in TWIST. Employment plans must be recorded under the assessment tab in TWIST.
For customers who report employment or attended a Back to Work orientation within a 12-month period, enter:
Use “RESEA – Orientation” to label the Back to Work Agreement, a signed Employment Plan, and Dislocated Worker supporting documents including the Addendum or Financial Aid Application.
Guidance for the Rapid Re-Employment InterviewWhen we can talk with a claimant in-person, we must make the most of the time and make sure we offer good service.
Make sure we have assessed a customer’s wants and needs, negotiated an employment plan, asked about any unemployment insurance issues, and offered referrals to open jobs, job search seminars, career readiness and career planning.
It may be best to make sure the customer’s WorkInTexas application is complete before ending the interview.
Give the customer your business card and encourage him or her to call you with any questions or concerns.
Career offices may adjust the sequence, timing and scheduling of an interview depending upon the customer’s wants and needs and the staff’s judgement.
Make a customer complete a WorkInTexas application by him or herself before arranging for the customer to interview with a staff member
Make customers wait to form a group and then provide service to the group instead of each customer individually
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) – Alabama's Medicaid Commissioner says the healthcare program is in as worse shape as it has ever been in.
Dr. Bob Mullins, who was named the agency's head back in December, said it took the governor several opportunities to recruit him for the job that he knew was going to be a struggle.
"I turned him down three times" Mullins said. "But then after the third time, I sat down with my wife and we prayed about it, and then after about a week, I decided I couldn't not take the job."
Mullins said he knew he was entering a difficult position but that he couldn't possibly turn down his childhood friend who is now the state's top executive.
"I've known him for 60 years. I remember when they built his parents house growing up in Columbiana."
One of the more difficult tasks for Mullins was addressing the Alabama Medicaid Agency's funding crisis. Like the Alabama Department of Education, Medicaid also received a massive injection of one-time Federal Stimulus dollars that were used to keep the department on firm financial footing. But now that money has expired and there's no indication the Federal Government will issue another reprieve.
"What I had not realized was the impact the loss of the Federal Stimulus funds were going to have on the budget. We lost $270 million right off the bat."
For the 2011 fiscal year, lawmakers appropriated $345.3 million through the General Fund Budget which was in addition to the $4.9 billion in earmarked funds. The Federal Stimulus funds made up the difference needed for the agency to operate.
Lawmakers are in the process of crafting the General Fund Budget for the 2012 fiscal year and Mullins has pleaded with lawmakers to appropriate more than twice the amount from last year.
"We're asking for roughly $700 million" Mullins said. "That's about 40% of the General Fund and we need it."
In his budget recommendations, Governor Bentley appropriated $647.6 million for the Alabama Medicaid Agency. Bentley said he placed Medicaid in a particular category of state departments that needs to face as few cuts as possible.
Mullins said the department cannot possibly cut any more without serious risks of the Federal Government intervening to take over the operation of the program in Alabama. He said it is possible that the agency could reduce its Home Health and Pharmacy programs. However, Mullins said those programs are "essential" to Medicaid's service to those enrolled.
On the Federal Government taking control of the Alabama Medicaid Agency, Mullins said he does not want the state to make history by the legislature failing to fund the agency fully.
"If the state fails to fund Medicaid and Medicaid has to fold, it will revert back to the Federal Government and the Federal Government will take over the program and administer it. That's never happened in the United States so no one would know what would happen if that happened."
Despite his concerns about how the Medicaid Agency will receive its funding, Mullins said he has no regrets about taking the job.
Legislative leaders have said they hope to pass budgets before the end of the session as has been the normal procedure in the past.
The estimated cost per participant is based on the average per-youth per-day cost to implement the program in Washington ($4.59) and the average number of program days in the studies included in this analysis. The average per-youth per-day cost was calculated based on 2016 program cost and the number of youth program participants in three Washington BBBS agencies (provided by BBBS of Puget Sound in October 2017). Except for fundraising costs, all expenses are included (e.g., buildings, phones, staff); however, this cost estimate excludes the value of donated volunteer time and space.