Eligibility for WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs

Adult Eligibility Requirements and Priority Levels

In addition to Adults meeting eligibility requirements in accordance with WIA Section 134(d)(4)(E), 18 years of age or older, due to limited funding available they must fall into one or more of the following prioritization categories:

• Individual is determined as low income (six (6) month family income does not exceed the higher of the poverty line or 70% of the lower living standard income level)
• Individual is receiving cash public assistance
• Individual meets the definition of an “underemployed worker”
• Individual is receiving food stamps
• Individual experiences multiple barriers to employment (including individuals with disabilities, homeless, offenders, individuals with substantial language barriers)

Dislocated Worker Eligibility Requirements

1. Category One - Terminated or Laid Off

• Has been terminated (without cause) or laid off, or has received a notice of termination (without cause) or layoff from employment; AND
• Is eligible for, or has exhausted entitlement to, unemployment compensation, OR
• Has been employed for a duration sufficient to demonstrate attachment to the workforce, but is not eligible for unemployment compensation due to insufficient earnings or having performed services for an employer that was not covered under a State unemployment compensation law; AND
• Is unlikely to return to a previous industry or occupation.

2. Category Two - Plant Closure or Substantial Layoff

• Has been terminated or laid off, or has received a notice of termination or layoff, from employment as a result of any permanent closure of, or any substantial layoff, at a plant, facility, or enterprise; OR
• Is employed at a facility where the employer has made a general announcement that such facility will close within 180 days; OR
• Is employed at a facility at which the employer has made a general announcement that such facility will close.

3. Category Three – Self-Employed

• Self-employed (including employment as a farmer, rancher, or fisherman) but is unemployed as a result of a natural disaster, or "general economic conditions" in the community where the individual resides. 

4. Category Four – Displaced Homemaker

• A “displaced homemaker” is an individual who has been providing unpaid services to family members in the home and who has been dependent on the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income; AND is unemployed or underemployed and is experiencing difficulty obtaining or upgrading employment.
• The definition of "displaced homemaker" includes only those individuals who were dependent on a family member’s income. Those individuals who have been dependent on public assistance may be served in the adult program. To be considered “dependent on the income of another family member”, at least 50% of the individual’s support must come from a family member. “No longer supported by that income”, means any reason for that loss of income, not just in the case of legal separation, divorce or death.

5. Category Five – Self-Employed

• Self-employed farmer, rancher or family member who derived 50% or more of their income from farming or ranching and is losing, or has lost, their primary source of income as a result of economic conditions over a period of two years or a natural disaster.