The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program is a required partner in the broader public workforce system and provides unemployment benefits to individuals who have lost their employment through no fault of their own and who otherwise meet initial and continuing UI eligibility requirements. Beginning in 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration funded the voluntary UI Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) program to address individual reemployment needs of UI claimants, as well as prevent and detect improper benefit payments. In 2015, the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program replaced the REA program providing greater access to reemployment services in addition to services previously provided under the REA program.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, amendments to the Social Security Act permanently authorized the RESEA program and implemented several significant changes including formula-based funding and a series of requirements intended to increase the use and availability of evidence-based reemployment interventions and strategies. The permanent RESEA program has four purposes:
Historically, RESEA targeted two populations: UI claimants determined to be most likely to exhaust benefits and former U.S. military servicemembers receiving Unemployment Compensation for Ex-service Member (UCX) benefits. The recent permanent RESEA authorization continues to target services to UI claimants identified as likely to exhaust UI benefits. However, provisions within DOL’s annual appropriations have provided additional flexibility for states to target any recipients of regular UI or UCX. Once selected, a claimant’s participation in RESEA is mandatory and failure to complete services may affect the claimant’s UI benefits. During FY 2018 approximately 20 percent of all UI claimants received RESEA services.
State participation in RESEA is voluntary. To operate an RESEA program a state must submit an annual plan detailing its service-delivery strategies, projected number of participants served, and other essential information. During FY 2019, 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands operated RESEA programs.
The foundational element of the RESEA program is an in-person meeting between the claimant and an appropriately trained American Job Center (AJC) staff member. There is variation across states in the use of technology, group sessions, and the number of RESEAs provided. At a minimum, RESEA sessions must include:
Every RESEA session is required to include a one-on-one assessment of the claimants’ continuing UI eligibility.
This assessment typically includes confirming employment status and a review of the claimant’s work search activities.
At a minimum, RESEAs must provide participants with:
By applying for RESEA funding, states agree to integrate the RESEA program with WIOA-funded and Wagner-Peyser-funded services. RESEAs were developed to supplement rather than supplant current reemployment activities provided by the workforce system, and, in this context, RESEA participants must be co-enrolled in Wagner-Peyser-funded Employment Services as part of the initial RESEA. Co-enrollment in WIOA Dislocated Worker or other available programs may also be appropriate.
Beyond serving as entry point to the workforce system for over one million UI claimants each year, the RESEA program can also directly support WIOA activities by contributing to American Job Center (AJC) infrastructure costs and providing reimbursement for various reemployment services conducted during or directly resulting from a claimant’s participation in RESEA.
The RESEA program is based on a successful model established in Nevada where eligibility assessments were delivered seamlessly with reemployment services. Research on that service delivery model found the impact to be the following:
States are required to implement RESEA interventions and service delivery strategies that have strong evidence to support they work and to evaluate any strategies without such evidence. Beginning in FY 2019, states have the flexibility to use up to 10 percent of their annual RESEA funding to conduct evaluations of these interventions and strategies. Beginning in FY 2023 states will be required to use no less than 25 percent of their grant funds for interventions or service delivery strategies with strong causal evidence showing a demonstrated capacity to improve employment and earnings outcomes for program participants.