DETR Responses To IFC
DETR Responses To IFC
DETR Responses To IFC
LEGISLATIVE BUILDING
INTERIM FINANCE COMMITTEE (775) 684-6821
401 S. CARSON STREET MAGGIE CARLTON, Assemblywoman, Chair
Cindy Jones, Fiscal Analyst
CARSON CITY, NEVADA 89701-4747
Mark Krmpotic, Fiscal Analyst
Fax No.: (775) 684-6600
MEMORANDUM
If you need additional information, please feel free to contact me at (775) 684-6821.
Attachments.
DENNIS A. PEREA
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: DETR Follow-Up Questions from the Interim Finance Committee Meeting on
May 18, 2020
On June 3, 2020 the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau sent a
memorandum to the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) requesting
additional information in relation to items discussed at the May 18, 2020 Interim Finance
Committee (IFC) meeting. This memorandum should serve as a DETR s formal response to this
request.
1. Testimony by the agency indicated that requests for additional positions have been
a. Please indicate the number and types of new positions the agency has requested to
date during the pandemic.
500 East Third Street, Room 200 Carson City, NV 89713 (775) 684-3911 Fax (775) 684-3908
2800 E. St. Louis Avenue Las Vegas, Nevada 89104 (702) 486-7923 Fax (702) 486-7924
detr.nv.gov
10 2.213 ADMIN ASSISTANT 1 23
1 2.211 ADMIN ASSISTANT 3 27
1 7.145 AUDIT SUPERVISOR 37
3 7.154 AUDITOR 2 34
2 7.657 BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYST 1 34
1 7.656 BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYST 2 36
4 11.365 COMPLIANCE/AUDIT INVEST 2 33
9 7.265 CONTRIBUTIONS EXAMINER 2 30
5 12.135 ESD APPEALS REFEREE 1 36
4 12.121 ESD APPEALS REFEREE 2 38
3 12.138 ESD MANAGER 2 37
1 12.129 ESD PROGRAM SPECIALIST 1 34
1 12.129 ESD PROGRAM SPECIALIST 2 35
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
26 12.168 REP 2 28
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
18 12.167 REP 3 31
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
6 12.165 REP 4 32
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
13 12.164 REP 5 34
133 Total PCNs
The above from question 1. a. is the first 133 positions of 147 positions initially being
requested through June 30th/ FY 2020, along with the Alorica call center staffing (see
attached contract and amendment 100 full time call center staff and 35 adjudicators).
The Division will be reassessing any additional needs for FY21 before the end of next
week.
c. Please provide an organizational chart for UI that includes the contracted Alorica
call center and any new state positions the agency plans to hire.
d. Please provide detail supporting the planned use of $475,186 of the CARES Act
implementation funds to augment the Personnel Service category, including
projected overtime for existing staff and the numbers and types of any additional
positions the agency plans to hire, along with the timing of hiring and training.
2
Monthly Stats
Payroll
cost from
Month* Hours OT Methodology
$
March 4745.28 193,000.21 PP20 & PP21
$
April 8549.95 338,491.91 PP22 & PP23
$
May 10084.21 759,957.51 PP24 & PP25
$ Projection (equivalent of most
June 10084.21 759,957.51 recent available month)
$ Projection (equivalent of most
July 10084.21 759,957.51 recent available month)
*months estimated using the two pay
periods falling nearest to the
calendar month
2. The agency testified that the utilization of contracted staff to receive, process, and
adjudicate PUA claims is permissible due to Declaration of Emergency Directive 19,
issued by the Governor on May 10, 2020, which is modeled on an Executive Order issued
regarding merit staff. The agency indicated correspondence with
Please provide copies of relevant
d Office along with any related
information from the federal Department of Labor and the State of Indiana related to the
use of contracted staff.
The DETR Employment Security Division began formulating the plan to obtain an executive
order for non-merit staffing after our legal counsel received information on a nationwide
NASWA call for lawyers of employment agencies. hen states inquired about how much
flexibility States had in staffing during the pandemic, the State of Indiana indicated that it had
gotten DOL approval from its regional office to hire non-merit staff for purposes including
adjudication of claims and appeals. Indiana had done it through an executive order by the
Governor of Indiana. Indiana indicated that not only had DOL approved the executive order
but had helped draft the language used in the executive order. DETR after numerous emails,
and the State of Indiana drafted an identical executive order, which was signed by the
Governor earlier this year. Some of the correspondence is attached. Other communications are
attorney client privileged. Although the Department of Labor has not officially responded to
our request for official approval, that is not uncommon during the pandemic when there is no
objection from DOL. As a matter of habit and practice DOL will contact DETR within 48
hours if it had objections to the Order.
3
As of the date of this request we do not have the weekly reports from the vendor with the
requested information detail. We are actively working on this and have a pending request with
the vendor to provide reporting as soon as possible.
4. The agency testified that PUA claims would be paid at the minimum benefit amount once
they were verified to be eligible, and adjudicated later up to the maximum state benefit
amount. Please indicate the number of PUA claims received, average amounts initially
eligible for, and average final adjudicated weekly benefit amounts.
As of 7am 6/10/2020 DETR has received 106K PUA claims. Nevada is paying the self-attested
based on reported income in Nevada this is the Average Weekly Benefit Amount of $362. We
currently do not have data on the final adjudicated weekly amounts as we currently have not
completed the first 21-day period for adjudication review. As soon as we have this
information available, we will provide.
5. Please indicate the percentage of PUA-related work being done and projected to be done
in the future by contract Alorica staff and DETR state staff and provide a copy of any
relevant backup documentation, such as weekly time tracking information.
Alorica has a staff of 299 trained claims representatives to man the 100 full time PUA Claim
Center positions. DETR staff do not take PUA Initial claims. Per the vendor, Geographic
Solutions, 103,288 PUA claims have been filed online without call center assistance. There has
only been a total of 1,793 PUA call center staff assisted claims taken via the telephone.
Additionally, Alorica has a current staff of 35 PUA adjudicators and as Monday, 6/8, they have
a total of 1,685 outstanding eligibility issues to resolve. DETR PUA Team currently has only 8
only be handled by Employment Security Division staff. Please see attached scope of work for
the Alorica contract.
6. When discussing claims adjudication and payments, the agency testified that standard
unemployment compensation claims were adjudicated before payments were made to
claimants, and there was currently a backlog of claims waiting to be adjudicated.
a. Please provide an update on the status of the claim backlog, including actions
taken by the agency to address the backlog, the number of claims awaiting
adjudication, and the estimated timeframe for clearing the backlog.
1. DETR has repurposed staff from other areas of the Department to help support
claim activity, moving claim staff into adjudication roles.
3. DETR has extended business hours, working staff 12 hours a day during the week
and hours during the weekend as well, with a total of nearly 13,800 OT hours
worked coded to claims activity since the start of the COVID pandemic in agency
902 alone, with another 6,800 hours coded to nonmonetary adjudication. Across
the agency, over 23,000 OT hours have been worked, so approximately 90% of all
OT hours in the agency have been focused on taking and adjudicating claims.
4
4. DETR regularly reviews the list of outstanding issues to try to identify ways to
balance the competing interests of prompt and accurate payment. For some issues,
DETR has temporarily changed the system to not hold payment and will
automatically cancel the issue. For some issues, payment is held for some weeks,
then future weeks are released while the original weeks await adjudication. For
other issues, queries are being built to assign particular issues to teams of staff for
resolution.
5. Staff continue to work the backlog of claims from the oldest to newest. An
adjudicator who needs to contact claimants for information can process 12-15
determinations per day in a 12-hour shift.
6. DETR has brought back former retirees on contract and asked for staff back on a
temporary basis from other Departments.
8. DETR has worked with other executive branch staff to fast-track hiring for
additional positions across the UI program.
For the most recent week of data, there were 372,693 potential weeks that could have
been filed (BWE May 23, 2020, activity in week ending May 30, 2020). Please see
attached pie chart representation of below data. For The week ending May 30, 2020:
330,130 weeks were processed claimant filed for benefits for this week)
Per DOL metrics, DETR measures the time lapse on determinations and payments once
they happen, weekly data should also be representative but may not align perfectly as
data is pulled from different systems.
5
Determination Timeliness
Oldest Interview 22- Open issues Open issues
Week detect Schedule <21 30 31-60 61-90 >90 on current on expired
beginning Gap date date days days days days days claims claims
6/8/20 71 4/6/20 6/16/20 73003 1077
6/1/20 67 4/6/20 6/12/20 664 78 742 2220 1 80006 969
5/26/20 65 4/6/20 6/10/20 789 68 1172 1434 4 71704 845
5/18/20 60 4/3/20 6/2/20 830 90 2454 252 3 72711 743
5/11/20 54 4/3/20 5/27/20 1040 124 3063 4 11009 * 73421 655
5/4/20 50 3/30/20 5/19/20 819 197 2407 7 839 ** 71272 579
4/27/20 42 3/30/20 5/11/20 635 302 1801 4 4 66963 497
4/20/20 35 3/30/20 5/4/20 661 581 837 0 5 90701 489
4/13/20 36 3/23/20 4/28/20 751 820 104 1 6 66196 263
4/6/20 33 3/18/20 4/20/20 1348 597 10 1 2 51074 274
3/30/20 27 3/17/20 4/13/20 1452 67 6 0 0 29118 167
3/23/20 21 3/16/20 4/6/20 1401 60 4 2 1 4342 74
3/16/20 11 3/16/20 3/27/20 1535 79 9 1 1 2813 72
*(includes 10979 late automatic backdate dets)
**(includes 835 late automatic backdate dets)
Issues Outstanding, on Open Claims, with Benefit Year End in 2020 or 2021. Not
all issues hold payment on claims.
First Payment Time Lapse - Of Payments Made in Month, % within 21 days of end
of first week in claim:
February 2020 - 90.5% (4,827 total first payments made; 50.4% within 7
days)
March 2020 - 99.3% (63,233 total first payments made; 87.6% within 7
days)
April 2020 - 92.7% (172,335 total first payments made; 63.6% within 7
days)
May 2020 - 48.9% (92,588 total first payments made; 37.0% within 7 days)
7. The agency testified it had not yet received federal approval of the applications for the
implementation funding included in the work program discussed and could utilize
different funding sources until the CARES Act funds were available.
DETR has not yet received implementation funding. DOL and DETR engaged in
discussions related to questions from DOL and moved forward with a commitment
from DOL to ensure 100 percent of PUA administration expenses are covered by DOL,
pursuant to CARES Act language, in the event that formula funding of on-going costs
is insufficient to cover actual PUA expenses.
DETR has received the FPUC funding and is using the UI Administrative Grant until
the remainder of the funds become available. The Fiscal Management Unit will journal
the expenditures for the correct funding source.
cc: Cindy Jones, Assembly Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Analysis Division, LCB
Mark Krmpotic, Senate Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Analysis Division, LCB
Alex Haartz, Principal Deputy Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Analysis Division, LCB
Sarah Coffman, Principal Deputy Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Analysis Division, LCB
Cathy Crocket, Senior Program Analyst, Fiscal Analysis Division, LCB
Dennis Perea, Deputy Director, Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation
Kitty DeSocio, Administrative Services Officer, Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation
Kimberly Gaa, Administrator, Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation
7
ORGANIZATIONALCHART
Legal Services
Page 3
Contributions
Page 11
UI Contributions
Page 12
staff for the Program to hire and train to adjudicate claims. This language also leaves the door
open for us to do the same in hiring additional ALJs, if they are needed to deal with the volume.
Dustin it was so nice to catch-up with you this morning! I really appreciate your time and
insights.
Good afternoon!
I hope this email finds you well. Indiana is (rapidly) exploring options to add temporary staff to
augment the adjudication staff. Having reviewed the most recent UIPL on this, as well as prior
UIPLs and your prior email correspondence with Gina on this subject (which was in relation to
augmenting our Contact Center staff), we think it would be best for us to approach our
Go
guidance is that we would not need an executive order to hire (and then let go of, when the time
comes) temporary adjudication staff, by all means, please let me know that as well.
I included both adjudication and appeals staff in the event the latter volume grows and we need
to augment them as well. Could you review our suggested language and let me know what
questions/concerns you have?
The Department of Workforce Development and the State Personnel Department shall
hiring and retention of temporary staff to adjudicate and hear appeals of all
Unemployment Insurance claims.
1. $ $ $ $ $
2.
3.
4.
5. Totals $ $ $ $ $
a. Personnel $ $ $ $ $
b. Fringe Benefits
c. Travel
d. Equipment
e. Supplies
f. Contractual
g. Construction
h. Other
j. Indirect Charges $
7. Program Income $ $ $ $ $
8. $ $ $ $
9.
10.
11.
13. Federal $ $ $ $ $
14. Non-Federal $
SECTION E - BUDGET ESTIMATES OF FEDERAL FUNDS NEEDED FOR BALANCE OF THE PROJECT
(a) Grant Program FUTURE FUNDING PERIODS (YEARS)
(b)First (c) Second (d) Third (e) Fourth
16. $ $ $ $
17.
18.
19.
23. Remarks:
1. $ $ $ $ $
2.
3.
4.
5. Totals $ $ $ $ $
a. Personnel $ $ $ $ $
b. Fringe Benefits
c. Travel
d. Equipment
e. Supplies
f. Contractual
g. Construction
h. Other
j. Indirect Charges $
7. Program Income $ $ $ $ $
8. $ $ $ $
9.
10.
11.
13. Federal $ $ $ $ $
14. Non-Federal $
SECTION E - BUDGET ESTIMATES OF FEDERAL FUNDS NEEDED FOR BALANCE OF THE PROJECT
(a) Grant Program FUTURE FUNDING PERIODS (YEARS)
(b)First (c) Second (d) Third (e) Fourth
16. $ $ $ $
17.
18.
19.
23. Remarks:
1. $ $ $ $ $
2.
3.
4.
5. Totals $ $ $ $ $
a. Personnel $ $ $ $ $
b. Fringe Benefits
c. Travel
d. Equipment
e. Supplies
f. Contractual
g. Construction
h. Other
j. Indirect Charges $
7. Program Income $ $ $ $ $
8. $ $ $ $
9.
10.
11.
13. Federal $ $ $ $ $
14. Non-Federal $
SECTION E - BUDGET ESTIMATES OF FEDERAL FUNDS NEEDED FOR BALANCE OF THE PROJECT
(a) Grant Program FUTURE FUNDING PERIODS (YEARS)
(b)First (c) Second (d) Third (e) Fourth
16. $ $ $ $
17.
18.
19.
23. Remarks: