TEN 14-24.pdf

ETA Advisory File Text

TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT NOTICE NO. 1 4-24 DATE December 6 2024 EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WASHINGTON D.C. 20210 TO STATE WORKFORCE AGENCIES FROM JOS JAVIER RODR GUEZ Assistant Secretary SUBJECT Release of the State Information Data Exchange System SIDES Power of Attorney POA Exchange 1.Purpose. To announce the release of the new POA Exchange by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies NASWA SIDES. 2.Action Requested. The Department of Labor s Department Employment and Training Administration ETA requests State Workforce Agency SWA Administrators share this information with appropriate staff and support staff. 3.Summary and Background. a.Summary This Training and Employment Notice TEN announces the release of the SIDES POA Exchange. This exchange is intended for employers third-party administrators and professional employer organizations collectively referred to as integrated partners to electronically request authorization to represent an employer for tax and or benefit purposes. This is the seventh exchange implemented by the NASWA SIDES team and the first to be initiated by integrated partners. The exchange is available for implementation by states and integrated partners effective November 19 2024. b.Background SIDES is a web-based system that allows the electronic transmission of unemployment insurance UI claims information between UI agencies and employers. NASWA a national organization of state administrators of the publicly funded state workforce system operates SIDES on behalf of the states. As noted most recently in Unemployment Insurance Program Letter UIPL No. 16-24 SWAs should view SIDES as a critical part of their UI integrity efforts and should connect to and build SIDES into their Integrity Action Plan. ETA recognizes the importance of SIDES in reducing improper payments and supporting the efficient administration of the UI program. 2 4. POA Exchange Details. The NASWA SIDES team has completed development of the POA exchange and this new exchange is available in production effective November 19 2024. The purpose of this exchange is to allow integrated partners to submit requests to create amend or rescind POA authorizations to SWAs. The POA request will include the employer s federal employer identification number FEIN and state account number allowing SWAs to create automated solutions to process the requests where applicable. The integrated partner will submit the request electronically to the SWA for processing through SIDES. This reduces costs and processing time for integrated partners submitting POAs by mail or fax. SIDES will provide a confirmation for the integrated partners as well track the date the request was successfully submitted to the state as well as the date the state retrieved the request from the SIDES broker for review. In addition the exchange allows states to timely and more efficiently process POA requests from integrated partners helping to ensure accurate information is available to support claims billing adjudication appeals and other critical UI functions. The increased functionality provided by this new exchange addresses challenges within the UI system nationwide related to the use of POA authorizations. Reconciling POA authorizations for integrated partners in most states has been a manual and time-intensive effort. This exchange adds functionality to SIDES in the form of a POA exchange to facilitate the efficient reconciliation of POA authorizations. Upon processing the POA authorization requests the exchange enables SWAs to respond to integrated partners through SIDES indicating if the POA was accepted or rejected. If rejected SWAs must provide the reason for rejection to the integrated partner through the exchange. Integrated partners can request to rescind an employer s POA authorization up to 30 days before the rescission is to take effect. The development of this new exchange was funded in part by the Department s investment of American Rescue Plan Act funds to support systemwide improvements in the UI program. 5. Inquiries. Direct any inquiries regarding UI SIDES to the NASWA SIDES team at uisides naswa.org. 6. References. UIPL No. 16-24 Additional Planning Guidance for the Fiscal Year FY 2025 Unemployment Insurance UI State Quality Service Plan SQSP issued July 22 2024 https www.dol.gov agencies eta advisories uipl-no-16-24. 7. Attachment s . N A.