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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Unemployment Insurance Administration State Grants

This grant program helps states operate their unemployment insurance programs, which provide temporary income support to unemployed workers. States determine eligibility for benefits, which are financed through state-levied taxes. The Department of Labor funds the administrative expenses of these state programs.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • State Unemployment Insurance programs paid $31 billion in unemployment benefits to 7.5 million unemployed workers last year. The Department of Labor provided $2.5 billion in grants to the states to administer this system. Benefits increase dramatically in recessions, exceeding $54 billion in fiscal year 2003.
  • States determine their own administrative procedures. The Department of Labor helps states to take advantage of new technologies and to share best practices for improving the timeliness and accuracy of benefit payments and increasing efficiency.
  • Improper payments are a significant problem for the Unemployment Insurance system. The Department of Labor has several initiatives underway to reduce and prevent improper payments, and has facilitated states' access to better information on claimants who have gone back to work.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Obtaining additional tools and resources to help states prevent fraud and reduce benefit overpayments.
  • Integrating use of the National Directory of New Hire crossmatch into the UI Benefit Accuracy Measurement survey to improve detection of claimants' eligibility for UI benefits.
  • Advising, facilitating and coordinating state adjudication training designed to improve claimant eligibility determinations.

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