Narrative: d. 1.

DES and DWD understand that reemploying claimants to reduce the average duration of UI benefit claims is critical to the effective and efficient operation of each agency. To accomplish this task, the DES and DWD will continue to look for opportunities to use Wagner-Peyser funds to improve reemployment services.

The Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) is intended to identify UI claimants with a high potential for exhausting their regular UI benefit entitlement and direct them to reemployment services to accelerate their return to work. Claimants selected for profiling are required to report to a Missouri Job Center for one-on-one staff assisted services.

Staff members from the DES and DWD continue to work together to coordinate and improve efforts to reemploy UI claimants. Missouri Job Center staff members identify potential eligibility issues related to claimants refusing suitable work or a referral to apply for suitable work. An automated process is in place for DWD staff to refer potential issues to the DES for investigation. Claimants may be determined ineligible to receive UI benefits when barriers to reemployment are discovered or they refuse to apply for suitable work as directed by Missouri Job Center staff. This collaboration between the DES and DWD helps to ensure the integrity of the UI benefits program.

The DES and DWD utilize a collaborative effort to further ensure the integrity of the UI program when the identity of a claimant is in question upon filing a claim for unemployment benefits. The claimant is directed to report to a Job Center with documents to prove identity. The DES has further improved this initiative by implementing an automated identity proofing program called Lexis-Nexis which began operation in May 2016.