NASWA Asks for Flexibility for EUC

On Friday, June 14, 2013, NASWA’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Committee Chair Bruce Madson (OH) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) Administrator Gay Gilbert communicating the need for flexibility of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program when Fiscal Year 2014 begins on October 1st.

The letter stemmed from the most recent NASWA UI Committee meeting at the end of April 2013, where states discussed the need for flexibility if states have to implement another sequestration cut for the EUC program for the fiscal 2014 budget cycle.

The UI Committee is concerned states will not have the time, or the resources, to implement another prescribed federal cut to the weekly and maximum benefit amounts to the EUC08 program before the program expires on December 31, 2013, to achieve the required sequestration savings. The UI Committee also is concerned another round of sequestration changes in the next fiscal year would cause further claimant confusion, unnecessary system changes and costs, increase the risk of benefit overpayments and underpayments, and hurt the overall integrity of the UI system.

The UI Committee proposed allowing states to implement the following options should fiscal year 2014 sequestration be required:

 1. Permit states to continue with the same state specific solution and percentage reduction approved by USDOL for fiscal 2013 sequestration reductions;*

2. Allow states to propose plans to achieve the targeted EUC reductions;
3. Permit states to change percentage reduction amounts to new EUC claimants and/or existing EUC claimants to achieve targeted EUC reductions; or
4. Permit states to end the EUC program early as a viable option for achieving targeted EUC reductions.