Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Demonstration Final Report

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Release Date

Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Demonstration Final Report

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Issue
1992-1

Publication Info

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program provides short-term income support to involuntarily unemployed individuals while they seek work. Historically, the UI program has used administrative work-search requirements and employment-service referrals to the Job Service (JS) to promote rapid reemployment. In recent years, however, considerable policy interest has been expressed in providing additional job-search assistance and other employment services to UI claimants, including additional monetary incentives for claimants to seek work on their own. These additional monetary incentives could be provided in the form of a reemployment bonus-a lump-sum benefit paid to those who become reemployed or self-employed quickly. This ?reemployment bonus? concept provides very different incentives than the regular UI system, which pays benefits to claimants for the weeks they remain unemployed. The Pennsylvania Reemployment Bonus Demonstration provides a test of the reemployment bonus concept to support policy development along four dimensions: (1) the extent to which a bonus offer can accelerate the job-search activities of claimants and encourage them to become reemployed more rapidly; (2) the magnitude of any reduction in the amount of UI benefits received and whether the savings in UI benefits exceed the cost of the bonuses; (3) the effect of changes in the structure of the bonus offer on employment, earnings, UI receipt, and cost effectiveness; and (4) program targeting and implementation issues.