Located in:
- Unemployment Insurance (UI)
(OMB Control Number: 1205-0132)
The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program requires a State Quality Service Plan (SQSP) on a 2-year planning cycle that is a condition of receipt of administrative funding to administer the program. The SQSP is the State’s UI performance management and planning process that allows for an exchange of information between Federal and State partners to enhance the UI program’s ability to reflect their joint commitment to performance excellence and client-centered services. A formal two-year SQSP is submitted biennially. On the off years, States may be required to modify the SQSP with additional corrective action plans and narrative if they are failing any new performance measures, and they are required to provide updated budget documents, certifications, and assurances. ETA Handbook No. 336, 18th Edition provides detailed guidance for the preparation and submittal of the SQSP and supplemental guidance is provided in an annual UIPL, issued as UIPL 15-19 for the FY 2020 SQSP. The Social Security Act (SSA) sections 302 and 303 authorize the Secretary of Labor to provide funds to administer the UI program and govern the expenditure of those funds. States that choose the option to include UI in a WIOA Combined State Plan will be required to submit their SQSP through the Combined State Plan process. The SQSP must be prepared in accordance to the instructions in ET Handbook 336, 18th Edition and there are no changes to the established SQSP cycle if a State chose to submit their SQSP through the Combined State Plan process.
- a. Contents of a Complete UI SQSP Package
A complete UI SQSP package includes the following documents, as described in Chapter 1, ETA Handbook 336, 18th Edition:
- a. Contents of a Complete UI SQSP Package
a. 4. Corrective Action Plans (CAPs)
CAPs are expected as a part of the SQSP when State’s annual performance does not meet the established criteria for core measures, Secretary’s Standards, UI program, assurances, and other program deficiencies identified in the annual SQSP guidance provided by the Department. The CAP must list both specific milestones for key corrective actions or improvement activities, and the completion date for each milestone.
Current Narrative:
CORRECTIVE ACTION PLANS
Benefits Accuracy Measurement
A. The Reason for deficiency:
MDES was granted approval to suspend paid claim investigations for the quarter beginning April 2020 and ending June 30, 2020, form batch 202014 through batch 202026. In addition, the denied claim investigations were suspend beginning with batch 202011 through batch 202126, quarter ending June 30, 2021. Due to the suspensions, BAM failed to sample the annual sample size for UI paid and denied claims fixed by Department of Labor for the calendar year. Mississippi’s workloads remained at extraordinary levels due to the effects of COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. MDES shifted its focus on increased response and reallocation of resources in specific areas of UI activities, which included but are not limited to ensuring program integrity and the prevention and detection of improper payments and fraud across all programs. As MDES continued to administer the CARES ACT and Continued Assistance for Unemployed Workers Act of 2020, managing the investigations associated with return to work, job refusals, able and available issues and job separations required intense focus. In addition, increased levels of initial and additional claims create a steady flow of eligibility issues. As a result, Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) staff were reallocated to assist other critical areas of the agency to help expedite benefit resolutions to those affected by COVID-19, which caused a significant delay in paid and denied case investigation completions.
B. Provide a description of your "Plan-Do-Check-Act" corrective action plan which will be undertaken to achieve the acceptable level of performance. Examples of major actions and activities; aka, Milestones, include IT requirements, business process analysis, training, implementing process improvements, measuring effectiveness, etc. Please include a description of these actions/activities in each stage of your "Plan-Do-Check-Act" corrective action plan:
Benefit Accuracy Measurement reviewer and supervisor will closely monitor timeliness more frequently by using the PCA and DCA use defined time-lapse reports to review case aging, completion and case flow characteristics. These reports will assist with analyzing and isolating performance problems sooner. MDES is the process of filling the BAM supervisor and investigator positions recognizing it will take time, training and experienced for new staff to reach expected performance levels. With BAM staff returning to their normal duties and filling vacant positions, MDES anticipates this will help improve case completion and timeliness.
C. If a plan was in place the previous year, an explanation of why the actions contained in that plan were not successful in improving performance; and, an explanation of why the actions now specified will be more successful. N/A D. A brief description of plans for monitoring and assessing accomplishment of planned actions and for controlling quality after achieving performance goals.
Mississippi will continue to monitor the time lapse reports to ensure the PCA and DCA investigations are completed timely and that BAM sample the required amount of cases required by DOL.
MILESTONES:
Monitoring
MDES will continue to monitor case timeliness and completion to ensure cases are sampled correctly and submitted timely.
Hiring/Staffing
BAM will fill vacant supervisor and investigator positions.