U.S. Department of Labor awards Nevada with $4.5M unemployment equity grant
The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation is pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Labor has approved $4,562,000 in funding for an Unemployment Insurance Equity Grant for the state of Nevada. This grant program is the first of its kind and will help ensure all eligible workers have fair access to unemployment insurance.
The money will provide better access to UI benefits for those who may experience significant barriers to access and those who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.
It will also support activities that promote equitable access to UI programs, which include eliminating administrative barriers to benefit application, reducing state workload backlogs, and improving the timeliness of UI payments to eligible individuals.
“Ensuring equitable access to our unemployment system is a priority to DETR. This grant will help us dedicate greater focus and invest even more on fair and equal access to our services” says Elisa Cafferata, DETR’s director.
DETR outlined seven projects for this grant application. Some of them include and are not limited to language translation, adding American sign language, instructional videos, artificial intelligence virtual assistant for unemployment claimants using self-service, more staff for adjudication assistance and ADA remediation.