PA Active Search for work requirement for EUC (collecting, file, receive)

[possibleSecondAct]

I just received a letter in the mail from the PA DOL in regards to the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012". It states that in order to be eligible for EUC, I must apply to at least 3 positions and either attend a job fair, search for job openings, take a civil service exam, post a resume online, utilize an employment agency, or participate in a job related activity or program. I have to do all of every week and keep a record of these activities.

I didnt read this in the latest FAQs and thought it would be useful information. I wonder if all states are making this a mandatory requirement in order to receive EUC.

[Ariadne22]

Originally Posted by possibleSecondAct

I just received a letter in the mail from the PA DOL in regards to the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012". It states that in order to be eligible for EUC, I must apply to at least 3 positions and either attend a job fair, search for job openings, take a civil service exam, post a resume online, utilize an employment agency, or participate in a job related activity or program. I have to do all of every week and keep a record of these activities.

All you have to do is submit three online applications, post a resume, keep a good log/record of same, and you're done. All of which most claimants should have been doing for the past three years. Most states have always required record recordkeeping of job searches and warn claimants they could be subject to random audits.

You do not have to do ALL of those things you've listed every week. PA is just listing your options. Work searches and recording keeping (previously not required federally) have always been a requirement in most states, as well as attending a job orientation/reemployment seminar at the beginning of unemployment. Failure to attend these orientations suspends benefits. There is nothing dramatically new here. Claimants in certain areas of WI were not required to perform work searches in 2009/2010 because of low population/lack of job opportunities. My brother, unemployed in Jan. 09, was living in one of those areas.

This from the BLS directive:

D. Work Search Requirements for EUC08 Recipients

Prior to enactment of the Act, the applicable state law work search requirements, as well as the applicable state law employment service registration requirements, applied to the EUC08 program. In addition, there was previously no requirement that claimants maintain records of their work search efforts. The Act amended the eligibility provisions to require that individuals must be able to work, available for work, and actively seeking work in order to qualify for EUC08. Actively seeking work means that individuals must:

• Register for employment services as prescribed by the state;

• Engage in an active search for work and make appropriate employer contacts in light of the labor market, and their skills and capabilities;

• Maintain a detailed record of their employer contacts; and

• Provide their work search records to the state upon request.

Notification: States must immediately begin providing notification to all EUC claimants that they must meet the new EUC08 work search requirements. Such notification may be done via mail, Internet, or interactive voice response telephone systems.

The Act further requires states to review/audit a minimum number of claimants’ work search records that are randomly selected to ensure that claimants receiving EUC08 are meeting the state’s work search requirements. For individuals receiving EUC08 First and Second Tiers, the states’ review/audit of individuals’ work search documents may be conducted at the time the individual reports to the One-Stop Career Center for reemployment services and the continued eligibility assessment (see item E below). Further guidance will be provided to states regarding their responsibilities for conducting these audits.

E. Participation in Reemployment Services and Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment Activities

States are now required to provide reemployment services and in-person reemployment and eligibility assessments to those individuals establishing a new EUC08 First or Second Tier claim on or after the 30th day after the date of enactment, which is March 23, 2012. The following reemployment services and reemployment and eligibility assessment activities are required:

1) The provision of labor market and career information;

2) An assessment of the individual’s skills;

3) Orientation to the services available through the One-Stop Career Centers established under title I of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998; and

4) Review of the eligibility of the individual for EUC08 relating to the job search activities of the individual.

Optional services to be provided include:
1) Comprehensive and specialized assessments;
2) Individual and group career counseling;
3) Training services;
4) Additional reemployment services; and
5) Job search counseling and the development or review of an individual reemployment plan that includes participation in job search activities and appropriate workshops and may include referrals to appropriate training services.

Participation in these reemployment services and continued eligibility assessment activities is required as a condition of eligibility for receipt of EUC08 unless there is good cause for the individual’s failure to participate in or complete the services. Funding for these activities will be provided from the general fund of the Treasury in an amount equal to the estimated number of individuals who will be provided such services multiplied by $85.

Further guidance is under development and will be issued by the U.S. Department of Labor in the near future under separate cover through a Training and Employment Guidance Letter.

http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/att...hange9_acc.pdf

There is nothing new here for most states. If the individual state adds another layer of a requirement, that is state specific, but not required on the federal level. In WI, the initial orientation included all of the items listed under E. in the Directive. As I said, failure to attend the orientation suspended benefits. And, to repeat, job searches/recordkeeping have always been a fundamental element of the UE program. There are numerous threads on CD dealing with the subject.

[possibleSecondAct]

Ariadne,

I cannot find the exact mailing that I have in the PA Website. But it does explicitly state that I do have to partake in the active search for work activities Every Week.

It looks like PA basically took the active work search requirement that is in effect for regular UC claims after 1/1/12 and applied it to the folks on EUC. The very title of the form that I got is "Active Search For Work Instructions Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC)".

Here is what PA defines as being an "Active work search" :

What are the Active Search for Work Requirements?

The Pennsylvania UC Law was recently changed to add additional eligibility requirements for UC benefits. If the effective date of your application for benefits (AB Date) is on or after January 1, 2012, you are required to do all of the following:

• Register for employment search services with the Pennsylvania CareerLink® system within 30 days after you file your application for benefits. If you are not already registered, go to www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us, select "New User?", and select "Individual Seeking Services." Create a Keystone ID and Password, using your complete Social Security number. Use your Keystone ID and Password to "Login." Continue to "My Home Page" and provide the information applicable to you under "Detailed Profile." If you previously created a PA CareerLink® registration, login using your Keystone ID and Password and proceed to "My Home Page." Click on "Base Record," select "Edit," and if required, enter your complete Social Security number being sure to click the "Save and Continue" button. Then update all applicable information under "Detailed Profile."
  
• Conduct an active search for work after the second consecutive week of your benefit year, as explained below.
  
• Keep a record of your work search activities and provide the record to the department when requested to do so, as explained below.

Your weekly work search consists of two (2) parts. If you satisfy both parts, you will meet your active search for work requirement for the week. The following information explains these two parts and what you must do to successfully accomplish your active search for work.

[Ariadne22]

Good heavens. You completely misunderstood what I wrote. Of course, you have to perform work searches every week and keep a log. This has been a requirement of the UE program in all the states from the very beginning. You certainly couldn't have understood my post to mean that you had only to do this once!!!

My comment was meant to clarify your statement you had to do ALL the things PA told you to do.

What I said was you had to do three things:

1. work searches
2. post online resume or perform one of the other options they've given you, and
3. keep a log.

It's no biggee and, with the exception of #2, nothing that people haven't been doing weekly for the past three years.

Weekly goes without saying. You are required to certify when you claim weekly or biweekly that you have done this. So, clearly, these things need to be done every week.

There has much comment on what a meaningless inclusion this language was in the legislation because every state has been requiring weekly work searches and logs and performing random audits for the past three years.

But I'm repeating myself now.....

[possibleSecondAct]

It must have been late so maybe I just caught bits and pieces of your post and misunderstood what you were saying.

While the active work search requirement should be nothing new and unusual for all collecting UE benefits, PA never required us to keep a record of what jobs we applied to and how often we needed to do it. Is this correct or have I been doing this wrong all along?

I know I have been searching since I got laid off and can probably pull data from my browser's history, emails, etc, BUT I never recorded a formal journal of these activities.

[Ariadne22]

I do not know what PA required in the past. I would be surprised if they have never audited claimants up to this point.

We've had a posters from other states who also have not kept logs, only to be called in for an audit and, like you, attempted to reconstruct their work searches. Somewhere in the fine print when they first filed their claim they were instructed to keep a record in the event of an audit, but they missed it. Fortunately, you've just begun your benefits. PA is so out of whack it would be unlikely you will be audited anytime soon. FYI - in WI a sample work search log form is to us when we first claim, informing us we could be audited eight weeks back at any time, so we need to keep a record of our work searches. Most other states ask for your entire work search history when they audit.

[possibleSecondAct]

I never did read the fine print...maybe it required an active search log or maybe not. All I know is that I was still recovering from the shock of a layoff in the early days of my claim and my only serious concern was if the amount I was getting would cover my bills.

However I have reason to believe that anyone with a UC application date prior to 12/31/11 did not have to keep a record of job search activities. Reason is on 1/27/12 the PA DOL released a "Revised" set of instructions for the active work search. It stated that anyone with a claim date on or after 1/1/12 has to start recording the job searches:

http://www.uc.pa.gov/portal/server.p...tructions.html

I'm not a lawyer but this seems to me that anyone claiming prior to 1/1/12 did not need to keep a log of their job search activities on their regular UC. But once they hit EUC they will need to comply with the same active job search log requirement as for regular folks that filed for UC after 1/1/12 (as per the letter that I received a few days ago).

[LuvzKoalas]

The only time PA required an active work search log prior to 1/1/12 was for the EB (extended benefits). Those forms had to be mailed in every week. Other than for the EB, if I recall, PA was the only state that did not require active work searches for regular UC and EUC until the law was changed.

[possibleSecondAct]

Originally Posted by LuvzKoalas

The only time PA required an active work search log prior to 1/1/12 was for the EB (extended benefits). Those forms had to be mailed in every week. Other than for the EB, if I recall, PA was the only state that did not require active work searches for regular UC and EUC until the law was changed.

If I was a betting person I would wager that a letter requesting an active job search log will soon be going out the the folks that are on regular UC and were laid off prior to 1/1/12. PA DOL could have made life easier for themselves and everyone else by making all claimants (regardless of UC or EUC) keep and active job search log instead of doing this in small bits and pieces. Government efficiency at its finest!

[veryblonde]

What I am understanding from the www.PA.Gov website for an "active work search", is that it is "mandatory" to register with PACareerLink online. Now that I have begun the federal "emergency" unemployment benefits, as long as I do an "active" search for more than 3 jobs weekly, (4 jobs), and record them in the PA.Gov "log", I do not have to satisfy Part 2 for that week. Additionally, if I am correct, I can job search myself, whether online, making an inquiry at an employer location, or a telephone inquiry to an employer, asking if they are hiring, e-mailing or "regular" mailing my resume directly to an employer, making a friend aware I am jobhunting, etc. Today, after telephoning and being kept on "hold" for almost an hour, an unemployment representative said that the "active work search" requirements have recently been changed, to include creating a "mandatory" resume online with PA Careerlink, even though the PA.Gov. website says in Part 2, this is one of the requirements that DOESN'T have to be done, provided you exceed the required amount of weekly searched jobs!! I am calling the PA Careerlink office tomorrow to verify this, and suggest the PA.Gov website be kept updated, so that there is no confusion.