Multilingual Retroactive PUA Eligibility Resources for State Workforce Agencies

Based on updated Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) eligibility criteria released by the U.S. Department of Labor in UIPL 16-20, Change 5, State workforce agencies across the U.S. must reopen PUA applications to claimants who were previously denied benefits and determine if they are eligible to receive retroactive payments. To help additional state workforce agencies achieve these goals while saving a significant amount of implementation time and resources, USDR has made the materials we’ve created for our state partner free to use for any state, district, or territory in the U.S.

By testing these materials with both English and Spanish-speaking claimants, we believe that they will reduce the risk that typically accompanies launching a new service for workers in need of unemployment insurance benefits. In taking a multilingual approach, we are committed to supporting state efforts to improve equitable access to benefits, as primary Spanish speakers comprise the 2nd largest language demographic in the country.

Outreach content that can be used for both digital and paper notifications to help claimants understand why they are being contacted and designed to mitigate for the perception of fraud/spam.

All 19 eligibility questions, each accompanied by legally compliant helper text optimized to increase readability, comprehension, and accuracy of responses.

Created for states using the FAST UI platform and tested for usability, this prototype can be used as a blueprint for any state, regardless of platform or vendor.