TAA Reversion 2021 Law

ATTENTION! The information located on this page pertains to TAA Reversion 2021 Law. This law applies to petitions that were filed on or after 07/01/2021 and that are assigned a petition number of 98,000 or above.

How do I know if TAA Reversion 2021 Law applies to my petition?

Search for your company's name on the United States Department of Labor's website. In the search results, look for your company's location under the "Location" column. Make note of the petition number that is listed in the "TAW number" column.

The petition number indicates whether the benefits that may be available to you are those under the Reversion 2021, 2015, 2011, 2009 and 2002 Law. Using the petition number that you've obtained in the step above, read the following bullet points below to see which law your petition falls under:

• If your 5-digit petition # is 98000 or above, you're potentially eligible under Reversion 2021 Law.

If your petition number matches any of the following below, please visit our main TAA program website for information on benefits & services that may be available to you:

• If your 5-digit petition # is 85000 to 97999, you're potentially eligible under 2015 Law.
• If your 5-digit petition # begins with 8, you're potentially eligible under 2011 Law.
• If your 5-digit petition # begins with 7, you're potentially eligible under 2009 Law.
• If your 5-digit petition # begins with 6 or below, you're potentially eligible under 2002 Law.

Resource: Department of Labor's Side-by-Side Comparison of TAA Program Benefits available under each law.

What is TAA?

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program helps workers who lose their jobs due to foreign competition, including work being moved outside of the United States. TAA program benefits and services make it easier to move past the disruption caused by your layoff, easier to develop in-demand skills, and easier to land a good-paying, full-time job.

To be eligible for the TAA Program, you must:

• Be a worker who lost your job at a company and location that has been certified by the U.S. Department of Labor as a trade-affected employer.
• Apply for the TAA program, to determine your individual eligibility for benefits and services.

What benefits and services are available to me under the TAA Reversion 2021 Law?

Career Exploration: Employment & Case Management Services

Services for Laid Off Workers

If you have recently lost your job, or are a veteran or spouse of a veteran who has been recently released from service, you may be eligible for a variety of services, including job search, resume, and interviewing assistance, career exploration and planning, information on Unemployment Insurance, financial assistance to cover the costs of classroom or on-the-job training, and more through the Dislocated Worker Program. You will be assigned a career planner who will help you develop a plan to get you back to work.

Connect with the Dislocated Worker Program:

• Visit our Directory of Workforce Services and select the county you live in.
• Scroll down to the section: "Services for Laid Off Workers" / "Dislocated Worker Program."
• Use the email and/or phone number listed to connect with a Dislocated Worker Program representative to begin the enrollment process.

Your career planner will evaluate where you are currently and help you figure out where you want to go in your career by asking these basic questions:

• What are your current skills, such as previous employment, military experience, education, or hobbies?
• What are your talents, aptitude and interests, such as communication skills or mechanical ability?
• What job opportunities would be a good fit for you, using data that shows what employers are looking for in an employee?
• Is training right for you?

If you are interested in training, think about your career goals and start researching the type of education you need, such as earning additional certifications, diplomas, or other higher education degrees. You can also explore registered apprenticeship or on-the-job training options. Research schools you may want to attend and draft a possible schedule that would fit your needs. Use the Training Approval Checklist to help you get organized and figure out your next steps, and bring this information when you meet with your TAA Career Planner to help speed up the process to get you into school.

Training

I'm Interested in Training, Now What?

Think about your career goals and start researching the type of education you may need, such as earning additional certifications, diplomas, or other higher education degrees. You may also explore registered apprenticeship and on-the-job training options. Be prepared to talk with your TAA Career Planner about your career goals to help speed up the process to get you into a training program.

Your TAA Career Planner will help you develop your training plan. They will work with you to match your skills, interests, and experiences with the current job market to find the right training for you. Schedule a meeting with your TAA Career Planner and review the Training Approval Checklist, which outlines the process you will need to follow to get TAA training approval.

To be eligible for training you must be:

• Unable to find a job
• Qualified to begin training

In general, an eligible training program must:

• Lead to full-time employment
• Get you job-ready
• Be offered at a reasonable cost
• Be completed within 130 weeks (approximately 2.5 years)

Your TAA Career Planner will determine if a training program meets TAA approval requirements.

What Kinds of Training are Available?

Work-Based Training

Generally, work-based training occurs in the workplace and involves a commitment by an employer or employers to employ successful participants after they have completed the program. On-the-job training (OJT) and registered apprenticeships are two types of work-based training.

• OJT is an individualized training program conducted at the actual work site, limited to a 104-weeks, where you will receive training required for a specific job. The employer is reimbursed a percentage of their costs to train you.
• Registered apprenticeship programs combine OJT with classroom courses. These programs tend to be longer in duration, so keep in mind that TAA training must be completed within 130 weeks (approximately 2.5 years).

Occupational Skills Training

This is generally the most popular training option and is often offered through your local technical college. This also includes college-level degree or certificate programs, along with any prerequisite courses.

Remedial Education

If you have not earned your high school diploma, or a training program requires a certain level of math skills, you may build your skills using remedial education as part of a larger training program. You can take Adult Basic Education courses in areas of math, English or reading, as well as earn your High School Equivalency Diploma or General Education Diploma (HSED or GED), or take English Language Learner (ELL) classes.

Living Expenses: Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA)

TRA payments provide a weekly allowance for your living expenses while you go to school full-time or part-time, under certain circumstances. TRA is a special extension of your unemployment insurance (UI) that pays an amount similar to your weekly unemployment check. There are three extensions of TRA to help you get through your training program:

• Basic (26 weeks)
• Additional (65 weeks)
• Completion (13 weeks)

To be eligible for TRA you must be:

• Enrolled in TAA-approved training, or
• Waived from the training requirement

You must be enrolled in training or your TAA Career Planner must waive your enrollment requirement by your training approval deadline, which is the later of:

• 16 weeks from either your layoff date,
  OR
• 8 weeks from the date of your company's TAA petition certification by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Working & School

Working while attending school is allowed, with some limitations. Work with your TAA Career Planner to determine how many hours you can work without reducing TRA payments.

Other Information

• You cannot receive TRA payments during school breaks over 30 days (for example, summer break).
• If you receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments, you are not eligible to receive TRA payments.

Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA)

ATAA is a cash benefit that pays 50% of the gap between what you made in your former job and what you make in your new job. This subsidy is paid over two years, or up to $10,000, whichever comes first.

For example, if you made $40,000 in your old job, and are making $30,000 at your new job, the income gap is $10,000. ATAA will pay $5,000, which is 50% of the gap.

To qualify for ATAA, you must:

• Be a part of a worker group that is certified as "ATAA eligible" in a TAA certified petition.
• Be at least 50 years old.
• Be making new wages of $50,000 per year or less.
• Be working 32 hours or more per week OR at least 20 hours per week if you are in a training program.
• Not be working at the same employment site with your TAA-certified employer.

If you choose to receive ATAA, you will no longer have access to TRA, training benefits, and job search allowances and vice versa. These benefits cannot be combined in any way because the ATAA benefit is an alternative to the other benefits listed.

Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC)

HCTC is a Federal tax credit program administered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). HCTC helps cover the cost of health insurance while you participate in the TAA program to make your health insurance premiums more affordable. The HCTC program does not provide health insurance coverage.

Participants in the HCTC program may select either of the following credit options:

• Yearly credit: You pay 100% of your premium for the entire year and then the IRS will either issue a refund to you or a credit against your federal taxes owed for 72.5% of your premium.
• Monthly credit: You pay 27.5% of your monthly premium to the IRS. The IRS adds the remaining 72.5% of your monthly premium, and pays your health plan administrator 100% of your monthly payment. This lowers your out-of-pocket payments for your monthly premiums.

What are Qualified Health Plans?

• COBRA: You must pay more than 50% of COBRA premiums. If COBRA eligibility ends, HCTC eligibility also ends until you enroll in another qualified health plan.
• Spouse’s Employer Health Plan: You may enroll in group coverage through spouse’s employer. Your spouse must pay more than 50% of the insurance premium. However, the monthly payment option is not available under this type of plan.
• Non-Group / Individual Health Plan

How Do I Participate in the HCTC Program?

• Apply for the TAA program.
• DWD will then mail a determination letter to both you and the IRS, if you are eligible.
• For monthly payments, use these IRS links to enroll:
  • Enroll in Advance Monthly Payments of HCTC
  • Questions and answers about enrolling
• For the annual tax credit, you pay 100% of your health insurance premium and then submit IRS Form 8885 when you file your annual federal income taxes.
• Pay your monthly premiums on time.

Additional information about the program and eligibility requirements is available at http://www.irs.gov/hctc.

Job Search Allowances

If your TAA Career Planner determines that a suitable job isn't available close to home, you may receive out-of-area job search allowances, which reimburse you for necessary expenses to attend job interviews, take tests, and attend referral appointments for work outside of your local commute. You must apply for the job search allowance before each individual trip.

TAA can reimburse you up to 90% of your mileage or commercial transportation costs. There are set rates for meals and lodging, based on a percentage of the Federal government travel rates. The maximum total job search reimbursement you can receive is $1,250.

There are two eligibility periods or deadlines for applying for this benefit:

• Within one year of either your last day of work with the TAA-certified company or one year from the date your company’s petition was certified, whichever is later.
• Within six months from completion of your training, if you enrolled in TAA-approved training.

Relocation Assistance

If you are successful finding a job outside of your local commuting area, then relocation assistance can help pay for necessary costs of moving. TAA relocation assistance covers you, your family, and your household goods. Your new job must pay at least 80% of your previous wages*, you must have accepted the job offer and you must apply for the relocation allowance before you relocate.

TAA moving expenses covers up to 90% of your eligible costs for commercial mover or truck rental and one-way travel. There are set rates for meals and lodging, based on a percentage of the Federal government travel rates.

In addition, you may receive a lump sum three times your previous weekly wage, up to $1,250 maximum. This payment can be used to cover other expenses not listed above.

There are two eligibility periods or deadlines for applying for this benefit:

• Within 14 months of either your last day of work with the TAA-certified company or 14 months from the date your company's petition was certified, whichever is later.
• Within six months from completion of your training, if you enrolled in TAA-approved training.

*or suitable employment that pays a wage of at least the 75th percentile of national wages, as determined by the National Occupational Employment Wage Estimates.

How to Apply

• Apply for Unemployment Insurance (UI)
• Apply for TAA Program

Workers laid off from a certified company's location must file individual applications for the TAA program to determine their eligibility for benefits and services. If you did not submit an application at an orientation session or through the mail, please call (888) 258-9966 to request an application packet. DWD schedules orientation sessions for larger groups of laid off workers from the same certified company and mails invitations to those workers.

REMEMBER: To be eligible for the TAA program you must be a worker who lost your job at a company and location certified by the U.S. Department of Labor as a trade-affected employer.

After You Apply – Get Started!

After you have applied for the TAA Program, DWD Unemployment Insurance Division will process your application to determine if you are eligible, and send you a determination letter in the mail. It may take up to three weeks to receive your determination letter.

While you are waiting to receive your TAA eligibility determination letter, you should prepare to meet important deadlines and plan to meet your career goals by developing your skills. Find your nearest local job center where you can start your career exploration, connect with additional job search resources and attend skill-building workshops.

If you are already working with a WIOA (dislocated worker) or TAA Career Planner, continue to work with them to develop your plan for new employment and keep track of important deadlines.