Interstate Work Registration Verification

Clay Cole – Texas Director of UI Support Services

 Purpose of the Work Registration Verification  Overview of Automated Verification Process  Results  Implementation Costs  Adaptability to Other States  Questions and Answers

During our participation in the UI Integrity Institute, Texas identified a root cause of improper payments to be the failure of claimants located in another state to register for work where they live. In 2009, Texas paid UI benefits to approximately 70,000 individuals located in another state. In 2010 that number was approximately 65,000 individuals.

Per Texas law, an individual is eligible to receive benefits if they registered for work at an unemployment office and report to the office as required. The purpose of this requirement is to connect claimants with reemployment resources and return them to work as quickly as possible. Claimants must register for work with the state where they’re living.

An issue arises when claimants living out-of- state fail to meet this work registration requirement. This work registration failure results in improper payments and potentially extends the claimant’s benefit duration. Texas reached out to Louisiana to explore an automated solution for this issue. A manual solution is not a viable option for many states based on the volume of their claims activity.

Staff at the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) and Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) implemented automated processes to verify whether claimants, who are located out of state, are registered for work in that state.

Phase 1 identifies Texas liable claimants currently located in Louisiana who:  provided a Louisiana mailing address;  have a valid, monetarily eligible initial or additional claim that has not expired; and  are required to register and look for work.

Nine days after processing an initial or additional claim, or address change, TWC sends a secure file to LWC requesting verification of the work application. The file includes the claimant’s:  Social Security number,  first name,  last name,  gender, and  date of birth.

Within one day, LWC returns the electronic file to TWC with work registration information indicating whether the claimant registered. TWC issues a determination suspending benefits for claimants who did not register for work in Louisiana.

Phase 2 of the project expands the process to Louisiana liable claimants located in Texas. Phase 2 is scheduled to be completed in Spring of Louisiana staff are designing and developing functionality to ensure claimant receiving UI benefits from LA that live in TX are registered for work in TX.

Tracking the first 4 months of experience  56% of Texas liable claimants living in Louisiana failed to register for work  41% of claimants who failed to register took notice and registered for work in Louisiana.  Based on TWC BAM projections for 2010, TWC would have prevented *$9.0 million in improper payments.  Nationwide this equates to a potential reduction of *$174 million in improper payments. *(ET Financial Data Handbook 394 report, Financial Data, Benefits Paid)

TWC anticipates minimal on-going maintenance costs. TWC found that it took approximately three months to develop and test the automated work registration verification programming. Development and testing costs were approximately $31,000.

LWC and TWC encourage other state participation in this automated work registration solution. LWC and TWC envision that DOL may consider expanding the ICON system to incorporate this automated work registration verification process. LWC and TWC see this as a meaningful way to reduce Interstate work registration improper payments to zero.

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