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8.2.2 Dislocated Worker Program

Effective date: October 1, 2017 - October 14, 2018

Individuals are eligible for the WIOA Dislocated Worker Program if they:

  1. are 18 years of age or older; 1
  2. are eligible to work in the United States; 2
  3. are registered with Selective Service (if applicable); 3 and
  4. meet the requirements for at least one of the Dislocated Worker Categories outlined below.

    Note: If someone is required to register with the Selective Service, but has not, follow the Failure to Register for Selective Service procedure.

The local WDBs may not add eligibility criteria, including, but not limited to, criteria related to income or county or state of residence. 4

Any costs associated with providing WIOA Title I services to non-eligible individuals may be disallowed. 5

Dislocated Worker Categories

Category 1 – Individual or Small Group Layoff 6

The individual meets the following:

  1. has been terminated or laid off or has received a notice of termination or layoff;
  2. is unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation;
    AND
  3. is eligible for or has exhausted unemployment payments stemming from the layoff used for program eligibility;
    or
    has been employed for long enough to demonstrate attachment to the workforce, but is not eligible for unemployment payments because earnings were not sufficient to qualify or the job the individual was laid off from was not covered under State unemployment compensation law.
Category 2 – Permanent Closure or Mass Layoff 7

The individual meets one of the following:

  1. has been terminated or laid off, or has received a notice of termination or layoff, because of a permanent closure of any size or a layoff of 25 or more workers from a physical employment site or from a virtual enterprise; 8
    OR
  2. works at a physical employment site or for a virtual enterprise where the employer has made a general announcement that the employment site will permanently close or the virtual enterprise will end all operations within 180 days;
    OR
  3. works at a physical employment site or for a virtual enterprise where the employer has made a general announcement that the employment site will permanently close or the virtual enterprise will end all operations, either in more than 180 days or with no date given. In this case, the individual may receive only basic career services until s/he receives a specific date of termination from the employer or until the closure is scheduled to occur within 180 days.

    Note: If an individual has received written notice from the employer of an anticipated layoff date, even if that date is more than 180 days in the future or is subject to change, s/he is eligible for the full range of WIOA services (i.e. basic and individualized career services, training services, and supportive services). A layoff notice filed with DWD-DET is an acceptable notice of termination as required in (a), if an anticipated layoff date (or dates) is provided.

    Note: DWD-DET considers a closure to be permanent when
    • the employer has specified that the closure is permanent;
    • the employer has not indicated when the employment site or virtual enterprice will reopen;
      OR
    • the employer has given a date for reopening that is more than 12 weeks after the date of the dislocation.
Category 3 – Separating or Separated Members of the U.S. Armed Forces 9

The individual is separating or has separated from the U.S. Armed Forces with a discharge that is anything other than dishonorable AND has received a DD-214 or other documentation (e.g. separation orders) showing separation or imminent separation.

Note: It is appropriate to provide services to imminently separating service members, if their discharge is expected to be anything other than dishonorable. Separating service members are required to participate in the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to ensure they are prepared for civilian employment. During the TAP program, separating service members and their spouses are encouraged to contact job centers. 10

Category 4 – Self-employed 11

The individual was self-employed (includes employment as a farmer, rancher, fisher, or independent contractor or consultant), but has become unemployed because of general economic conditions or because of a natural disaster.

Category 5 – Displaced Homemaker 12

The individual has been doing unpaid work in the home and meets one of the following:

  1. has been dependent on the income of another family member, but is no longer supported by that income (e.g., because the other family member was laid off, or because of death or divorce)
    and
    is unemployed or underemployed and is having trouble either obtaining or upgrading employment;
    OR
  2. is the dependent spouse of a member of the U.S. Armed Forces on active duty whose family income has been significantly reduced because of the service member's deployment, call or order to active duty, permanent change of station, or service-connected death or disability
    and
    is unemployed or underemployed and is having trouble either obtaining or upgrading employment.
Category 6 – Military Spouse 13

The spouse of a member of the U.S. Armed Forces on active duty who meets one of the following:

  1. has lost employment as the direct result of relocation to accommodate a permanent change in the service member's duty station;
    OR
  2. is unemployed or underemployed and having trouble either obtaining or upgrading employment.