Initial FY 2009 unemployment insurance State Quality Service Plan call

Accessible letter (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/advisories/UIPL/2008/UIPL18-08acc.pdf)

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY SYSTEM
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Washington, D.C. 20210
CLASSIFICATION: UI/SQSP
CORRESPONDENCE SYMBOL: OWS/DPM
DATE: May 20, 2008

ADVISORY:         UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM LETTER NO. 18-08

TO:               STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES

FROM:             BRENT R. ORRELL /s/
                  Acting Assistant Secretary

SUBJECT:          Call Memo for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Unemployment Insurance (UI)
                  State Quality Service Plan (SQSP)

1. Purpose. To initiate the FY 2009 SQSP process and to issue supplemental instructions for
   the preparation of the FY 2009 SQSP.

2. References. ET Handbook No. 336, 18th Edition, “Unemployment Insurance State Quality
   Service Plan (SQSP) Planning and Reporting Guidelines”; Unemployment Insurance
   Program Letter (UIPL) No. 14-05, “Changes to UI Performs”; UIPL No. 14-05, Change 1,
   “Performance Criterion for the Overpayment Detection Measure; Clarification of Appeals
   Timeliness Measures; and Implementation of Tax Quality Measure Corrective Action Plans
   (CAPs)”; UIPL No. 14-05, Change 2, “Performance Criteria for Appeals Case Aging
   Measures and the Starting Date for Measuring Nonmonetary Determinations Time Lapse”;
   UIPL No. 14-05, Change 3, Acceptable Levels of Performance (ALP) Criteria for Appeals
   Case Aging Measures, and Nonmonetary Determination Quality Review; UIPL No. 41-95,
   “Draft Narrative Describing the System for Enhancing Unemployment Insurance
   Performance: The ‘UI PERFORMS’ System”; Workforce Investment Act Final Rule, 20
   CFR Parts 652, 660 et al; UIPL No. 22-05, “Unemployment Insurance Data Validation (UI
   DV) Program Software and Policy Guidance; UIPL No. 22-05, Changes 1, Unemployment
   Insurance Data Validation (UI DV) Program Activities During Validation Years (VY) 2007
   and 2008 and Policy Clarification; UIPL No. 22-05, Change 2, Unemployment Insurance
   Data Validation (UI DV) Program Activities during Validation Years (VY) 2008 and
   Beyond; UIPL No. 3-07, Use of National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) in
   Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) Audits ; UIPL No. 3-
   07, Change 1, Use of National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) in Unemployment Insurance
   (UI) Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) Audits; UIPL No. 12-08, Establishing an

RESCISSIONS: None
EXPIRATION DATE: May 20, 2009

   Acceptable Level of Performance (ALP) for the Unemployment Insurance (UI)
   Reemployment Rate Measure; and TEGL 20-07, Government Performance and Results Act
   (GPRA) Unemployment Insurance (UI) Program Goals: Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Performance
   and Performance Targets for FY 2008 and FY 2009).

3. Background. As part of UI Performs, the comprehensive performance management system
   for the UI program, the SQSP is the principal vehicle that the state UI programs use to plan,
   record, and manage improvement efforts as they strive for excellence in service.
   Additionally, it is the grant document through which states receive Federal UI administrative
   funding. ET Handbook No. 336, 18th Edition, contains general instructions for the SQSP.

   The Handbook is designed as a permanent instruction for the annual planning and budget
   process and provides states with planning guidelines and instructions for reporting UI
   financial and staff year information. The annual Call Memo supplements those instructions
   and provides guidance and instructions specific to the year in question.

   UI is one of the Workforce Investment Act title I partners. While states have the option to
   include their UI programs as part of their two-year Strategic Unified State Plan submitted
   under Section 501 of the Act, they must participate in the annual UI Performs SQSP process.

4. Federal Emphasis. Each year, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
   identifies program areas that warrant special attention. The five-year Department of Labor
   (Department) Strategic Plan forms the basis for the Federal emphasis for FY 2009. Required
   by Congress under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), the
   Strategic Plan is an integral part of the budget process and requires a commitment from all
   Department programs to attain expressed goals and outcomes. Achieving these outcomes
   requires the combined efforts of the Federal and state partners.

   The UI program goal, shown below, supports the Department’s strategic goal of “A Secure
   Workforce.”

       Make timely and accurate benefit payments to unemployed workers,
       facilitate the reemployment of unemployment insurance beneficiaries,
       and set up unemployment tax accounts promptly for new employers.

   In recognition of ETA’s priorities, we are focusing our attention on the following GPRA goals
   for FY 2009. States are expected to describe in the SQSP Narrative the steps they will take to
   reach and/or maintain these GPRA goals and targets in FY 2009:

          •   Make Timely Benefit Payments.
                 ♦ Target: 88.5% of intrastate first payments for full weeks of
                     unemployment will be made within 14/21 days from the week ending date
                     of the first compensable week.

          •   Facilitate the Reemployment of Claimants.
                  ♦ Target: 65.3% of UI claimants will be reemployed by the end of the first
                       quarter after the quarter in which they received their first payment.

         •    Detect Benefit Overpayments.
                  ♦ Target: Overpayments established will be at least 56.2% of the estimated
                      detectable, recoverable overpayments.

          •   Establish Tax Accounts Promptly.
                 ♦ Target: 85.1% of status determinations for new employers will be made
                     within 90 days of the end of the first quarter in which liability occurred.

5. Program Performance and Planning Requirements for FY 2009. The Department’s
   strategic approach to UI Performs is to focus efforts on raising the performance of states
   where performance is below minimum criteria, while promoting overall excellence. To that
   end, corrective action plans (CAPs) are expected whenever a state’s performance does not
   meet established criteria for the SQSP measurement period. The measurement period for the
   FY 2009 SQSP is April 1, 2007 – March 31, 2008, unless otherwise indicated. CAPs are
   expected for:

          a. state’s performance below the Acceptable Levels of Performance (ALPs) for Core
             Measures;

          b. state’s performance below the criteria for Secretary Standards established in
             regulation for the SQSP measurement period;

          c. improper administration of Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) and/or Benefit
             Payment Control (BPC) activities or misreporting of data on the ETA 227
             (Overpayment Detection and Recovery Activities) report resulting in an
             overpayment detection rate above 95%. The CAP should be designed to produce
             valid data for the Overpayment Detection Measure;

          d. State BAM operations that are not compliant with the NDNH matching
             requirements in UIPL 3-07 and UIPL 3-07, Change 1 for calendar year (CY) 2008
             BAM paid claims sample cases;

          e. failure to submit Data Validation results.

   States will address all other performance deficiencies in the SQSP Narrative as described in
   the SQSP Handbook.

   CAPs and Narratives addressing performance deficiencies are the components of the state’s
   formal plan and schedule for improving performance. To that end, a thorough analysis to
   identify the cause of performance shortfalls should be performed prior to the development of
   the state’s plan. The formats for CAPs and Narratives are in the SQSP Handbook.

   Multi-year CAPs continue to be an option for states so that efforts which must extend beyond
   a fiscal year due to their size, scope, or complexity can be realistically portrayed. Out-year
   portions of such multi-year plans need not provide quarterly targets or milestones as are
   required for the SQSP year, but should provide sufficient information to explain anticipated
   progress and results.

6. Performance Criteria. ET Handbook 336, 18th Edition provides guidelines for the
   completion and submittal of the SQSP and should be used when preparing the FY 2009 state
   plans.

   CAPs will be expected for annual performance that does not meet ALPs on Core Measures as
   listed in Attachment A, with the following exceptions:

       •   Average Age of Pending Lower and Higher Authority Appeals: ALPs for the
           Average Age of Pending Appeals Core Measures were established in UIPL 14-05,
           Change 3, to be effective for Performance Year 2009 (April 1, 2008 – March 31,
           2009) and thereafter. States that do not meet the ALPs for this period will be
           expected to submit CAPs with their FY 2010 SQSP. For the FY 2009 SQSP, states
           should describe in the Narrative the steps they are taking to minimize the age of
           pending appeals and reduce backlogs. The ALPs for the average age of appeals are:
                      Lower Authority Appeals:               30 days
                      Higher Authority Appeals:              40 days

       •   Detection of Overpayments: The Detection of Overpayments Measure is the percent
           of detectable/recoverable overpayments established for recovery. States reporting an
           overpayment detection rate below 50% are expected to address the low performance in
           a CAP. The performance period for the BPC component is the three-year period
           ending March 31, 2008; the performance period for the BAM component is the three-
           year period ending September 30, 2007.

           Because states generally cannot detect and establish more than 80%-90% of estimated
           overpayments, an upper limit of 95% has been established for monitoring purposes.
           States reporting ratios over 95% are expected to explain in the Narrative section the
           reasons for the higher than expected ratios. As noted in section 5 (c), if an
           overpayment rate above 95% is the result of improper administration of BAM or BPC
           activities or misreporting of BAM or BPC data, the state is expected to submit a CAP
           designed to produce valid data for the Detection of Overpayment Measure.

       •   Nonmonetary Determination Timeliness -- Issue Detection Date (IDD) and
           Determination Date (DD). Validity of the UI Performs nonmonetary
           determination timeliness measure depends on the accuracy of the state’s IDD and
           DD data. IDD and DD data are considered accurate if dates were correct in at least
           95 percent of the nonmonetary determinations evaluated in the quarterly quality
           samples (obtained from the ETA 9056 report). Because the accuracy of IDD and
           DD data is based on sample results, sampling variation will be taken into account
           in setting the percentage below which a state’s data will be considered inaccurate.
           States with invalid IDD or DD data are expected to address in the SQSP Narrative
           the steps they will take to record the IDD and DD correctly.

           Although accurate reporting of IDD and DD data is critical to the system, states
           may achieve the ALP for the nonmonetary timeliness measure with incorrect data,
           because the timeliness of the determination may not change materially. For
           example, an incorrect IDD might increase completion of a determination from 12
           to 17 days; however, this is still less than the 21-day timeliness standard.

       The Department will conduct further analyses of the impact of inaccurate IDD and
       DD on the validity of the state’s nonmonetary timeliness results, and may, in future
       SQSP cycles, expected to develop a CAP if the inaccuracy of IDD and DD
       reporting significantly affects the validity and reliability of the state’s nonmonetary
       timeliness data.

States must take corrective action for Management Information Measures where performance
is so conspicuously poor that compliance with Federal law requirements is in question.

States will be expected to describe in the SQSP Narrative the actions planned to correct
deficiencies regarding program reviews and reporting requirements as defined in the SQSP
Handbook with the following exceptions:

   •   Data Validation (DV). States are expected to prepare a CAP for Validations of
       populations that were due for validation year (VY) 2008 but for which the state
       submitted no results; this includes any of
              o the 15 DV Benefits populations and the 5 DV Tax populations validated
                  and submitted using the state DV software;
              o The six Module 4 reviews of quality samples--two Benefits samples and
                  four Tax samples--that are to be submitted by e-mail to
                  [email protected] using the template on the DV web site; and
              o Wage Item validations (Tax Module 5) submitted using the DV state
                  software.
       DV items that were due for VY 2008 for which failing or incomplete results were
       submitted is expected to be addressed in the SQSP narrative.

   •   Use of National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) in Unemployment Insurance
       (UI) Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) Audits.

       UIPL No. 3-07 (October 31, 2006) informed state agencies that the requirement to
       incorporate crossmatches of UI benefit recipients with the NDNH as a mandatory part
       of the BAM case investigation methodology for paid claims would be effective with
       BAM batch 200801 (sampling week beginning December 30, 2007, and ending
       January 5, 2008).

       State BAM operations that are not compliant with the NDNH matching requirements
       in UIPL 3-07 and UIPL 3-07, Change 1 for calendar year (CY) 2008 BAM paid
       claims sample cases will be expected to prepare a CAP that:

              o Describes the steps the agency will take to implement NDNH matching of
                BAM paid claims sample cases according to the requirements established
                in UIPL No. 3-07 and UIPL No. 3-07, Change 1;
              o Specifies an implementation date; and
              o Certifies that all CY 2008 BAM paid claims sampled prior to the
                implementation of NDNH matching will be submitted for NDNH
                matching once it has been implemented and that all issues with the
                potential to affect the claimant’s eligibility for UI identified through

                      NDNH matching will be investigated according to the procedures in ET
                      Handbook 395.

7. CAPs In Action (CIA) Project. As part of the SQSP review process, the National Office, in
   partnership with the Regional Offices, started a pilot project in FY 2008 to improve internal
   communication and analysis of the state corrective action plans at the federal level; and to
   assist the regions and the states in analyzing and monitoring the progress towards
   performance goals. States were selected based on performance significantly below the ALPs
   established for Core Measures and/or the performance level established in the Secretary’s
   Standards. States participating in the CIA project will be notified by their Regional Office.

8. Funding Period. The proposed appropriation language provides for obligation of FY 2009
   UI allocations by states through December 31, 2009, with 90 additional days to liquidate the
   obligations and complete the expenditure of funds. However, states may obligate FY 2009
   UI funds through September 30, 2011, if such obligations are for automation acquisitions.
   Therefore, the end of the FY 2009 obligation period is December 31, 2009, for all funds
   except automation acquisitions, which have an obligation deadline of September 30, 2011.

9. Data Availability. The Regional Offices (ROs) will provide states with reports showing their
   performance against the Core Measures, the GPRA goals, and other information relevant to
   the SQSP (i.e., reporting deficiencies.)

10. Deadline for State SQSP Submittal. Each RO will set a deadline for states to submit their
    SQSPs for FY 2009.

11. Electronic Submission of the SQSP. States are required to submit the SQSP electronically
    and should contact their RO SQSP Coordinator prior to submittal to coordinate specific
    details. Standard forms required as part of the budget reporting process (Chapter II of ET
    Handbook No. 336, 18th Edition) are available in PDF format and may be downloaded from
    the Office of Management and Budget Web site at
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/grants_forms.html. If electronic signatures are
    approved by the state for use in the submission of legal documents to the National Office and
    ROs, states may submit the SQSP signature page electronically. States that do not submit an
    electronic signature page must submit the signature page in hard copy by mail or facsimile by
    the deadline set by the RO.

12. Action. State Administrators are requested to:

       a. Make this information available to appropriate staff;

       b. Prepare their SQSPs in accordance with instructions in this UIPL and the planning and
          reporting instructions contained in ET Handbook No. 336, 18th Edition;

       c. Coordinate specifics, as appropriate, with the RO for electronic submission of the
          plan; and

       d. Submit the FY 2009 SQSP to the appropriate RO by the date specified by the Regional
          Administrator.

13. Inquiries. Questions should be directed to the appropriate RO.

14. Attachment. Measures/Programs to be addressed in the FY 2009 SQSP

Attachment A: FY 2009 SQSP Measures and Programs (https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/advisories/UIPL/2008/UIPL18-08a1.pdf)

Attachment A

                     Measures/Programs to be Addressed in the FY 2009 SQSP

Core Measures                             Measurement Period            ALP          CAP     Narrative
First Payment Promptness                  Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008     87           √
Nonmonetary Determination Time Lapse      Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008     80            √
                                                                       (combined
                                                                         score)
Nonmonetary Determination Quality -       Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008      75           √
Nonseparations
Nonmonetary Determination Quality -       Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008      75           √
Nonseparations
Detection of Overpayments                 BPC: Apr 1, 2005 – Mar 31,      50           √
                                          2008;
                                          BAM: Oct. 1, 2004 – Sept.
                                          30, 2007
Average Age of Pending Lower Authority    Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008      30                      √
Appeals
Average Age of Pending Higher Authority Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008        40                      √
Appeals
Lower Authority Appeals Quality         Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008        80           √
New Employer Status Determinations        Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008      70           √
Time Lapse
Tax Quality (Part A: No more than 3 tax   Jan 1, 2008 – Dec 31, 2008                   √
functions failing TPS in a year)                                          ←
Tax Quality (Part B: The same tax         Jan 1, 2008 – Dec 31, 2008                   √
function cannot fail for 3 consecutive                                    ←
years)
Facilitate Reemployment                   1st Payments: October 1, See UIPL            √
                                          2006 to September 30, 2007 No. 12-08
                                          Reemployment: January 1,
                                          2007 to December 31, 2007

Secretary Standards in Regulation         Measurement Period                         CAP     Narrative
First Payment Promptness (IntraState      Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √
14/21 Days)
First Payment Promptness (IntraState 35   Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √
Days)
First Payment Promptness (InterState      Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √
14/21 Days)
First Payment Promptness (InterState 35   Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √
Days)
Lower Authority Appeals (30 Days)         Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √
Lower Authority Appeals (45 Days)         Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008                   √

Programs                                 Measurement Period           CAP   Narrative
Improper Administration of BAM and       BPC: Apr 1, 2005 – Mar 31,    √
BPC                                      2008;
                                         BAM: Oct. 1, 2004 – Sept.
                                         30, 2007
Data Validation                          Apr 1, 2007 – Mar 31, 2008
   ƒ No results submitted
   ƒ Failing/incomplete submission                                     √    √
Use of National Directory of New Hires   Effective Jan 1, 2008         √