Reemployment Trade Adjustment Assistance (RTAA)

Re-employment Trade Adjustment Assistance is a wage subsidy available to workers who are age 50 years or older at the time they find new full-time work which pays less than the weekly wages at the TAA certified employer. The subsidy is 50% of the difference between new employment wages and previous wages. RTAA subsidy is limited to a maximum of two years (104 weeks), the maximum allowed depends on which law covers your petition, and the maximum amount is reduced by any TRA weekly benefits you have claimed. Claiming RTAA cancels out all future eligibility for the TRA weekly benefits. You can qualify for the HCTC Health Coverage Tax Credit while claiming RTAA. RTAA payments are reported to the IRS as taxable income.

Eligible Workers

You must be 50 years old or older at the time you start new full-time work. A job that you begin while you are younger than 50 years old will not qualify for RTAA.
(The only exception is if you began working part-time when you not yet 50 but you increased hours to fulltime after you turned 50 years old.)

Eligible Employment

New employment must be Fulltime, which is currently 32 hours per week(the exception is if you are going to school fulltime, then work at 20 hours per week is allowable).Multiple part-time jobs can be combined to meet the 32 hours full-time requirement.

The projected annual wages at new employment cannot exceed certain levels, depending on which TAA Law applies to your petition:

$50,000/year for 2002 Law and 2011 Law petitions
$55,000 for 2009 Law petitions

If annual wages exceed these amounts then you do not qualify for RTAA.

New employment can not be at the same employment site as your TAA certified employer

Allowed Subsidy Amount

The RTAA wage subsidy is 50% of the difference between your previous weekly wages and weekly wages at new employment - not hourly wage rates. Overtime pay is excluded from the subsidy calculation.

The maximum allowed RTAA payment depends on which TAA Law applies to your petition:

$10,000 total benefit for 2002 Law and 2011 Law petitions
$12,000 total for 2009 Law petitions

Your maximum allowed RTAA payment is reduced if you received any TRA weekly cash payments. Each week that you received TRA reduces RTAA amount by about 1%. (For instance, if your petition qualifies for $12000 but you claimed 25 weeks of TRA while you were in school, then your max benefit is reduced by 25% down to approximately $9000 maximum.)

Eligibility Periods and Deadlines

There is a 104-week period to qualify for and claim RTAA. Your “104-week clock” can start whether you find fulltime work right away or not.

If you have NOT received any TRA weekly cash benefits: This 104-week period starts the earlier of: the week after you exhaust all UI weekly benefits from your claim that includes your TAA-certified employer (including emergency extensions), or the week after that claim expires, or the first day of new fulltime work.
If you have received TRA weekly cash benefits while you were in training: Your 104-week period started the week you first claimed actual TRA tier of benefits, ie your RTAA claim period is reduced by the number of weeks you received TRA payments. And, your maximum allowed RTAA payment is reduced as well (see “allowed subsidy amount”).

Documentation

You must provide documentation of your age such as a drivers license. You must provide documentation of your wages in the form of a paystub, or statement from the company showing pay rate and hours worked.

From your previous TAA-certified employer: Paystub or other documentation showing the last fulltime week that you worked (not severance or vacation payout).
From your new employer(s): Paystub or other documentation showing the first fulltime week that you worked is needed to determine initial approval for RTAA. Ongoing payment of RTAA requires you to submit each paystub to your TAA Coordinator. RTAA payments will be made at most every two weeks.

RTAA is Taxable Income

RTAA payments are reported to the IRS as taxable income. We cannot withhold state or federal taxes from your RTAA payment. You need to put aside funds to cover any additional taxes that you may owe. One strategy is to reduce the number of exemptions with your new employer, in order to make your tax deductions higher.