TRA (Trade Readjustment Allowances)

- Definition: "Income support payments to individuals who have exhausted Unemployment Compensation and whose jobs were affected by foreign imports as determined by a certification of group coverage issued by the Department of Labor."

- Federal website   https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/tra.asp

Comments from members: (Personally-identifiable details removed.)

"You won’t find any info within HPI or HPE. You need to inquire at your local unemployment office or your state Labor Department. These are Federal Benefits administered at the state level. I had to do the leg work myself."

"Not everyone is eligible but if you can identify your local TRA administrator they can help you determine if you are eligible and if there is an existing petition for benefits in place that you can leverage or if you need to initiate a new petition and submit it for review / approval."

"Go to the unemployment office and register for the TAA/TRA.
1. Need to tell them you have been impacted by the layoffs from HPE. Make sure you know the date of last work.
2. If you register for TAA you need to go enroll in the school. They pay for your school.
3. TRA is if you find a job that pays less than what you made at HPE -- they pay you the difference.
4. Make sure you receive a case # and got approval for the resources.
5. I was once registered in school -- but didn't continue because I got a job that paid well."

"The unemployment office (Texas Workforce Commission in Austin) ...is doing some further research but believe it is past the deadline for me... (19 months.) I've also spoken with [an IT training company] which is very familiar with the TAA process and they are trying to help me navigate this process as well."

"You probably won't get any notification. You should search to see if a trade act petition has been filed... It's been a few years, but my recollection is that once a petition has been filed and accepted, you can apply for retraining benefits. Your local state employment agency may have more information, and may have even filed a petition."

"After many years at HP went back and got an MS in computer science under the trade act."

"I learned about it at my state career center in Massachusetts. You do need to apply for this program in a certain time frame. You need to register for an approved training program within I think 20 weeks of your separation date. A couple of other benefits (at least in Massachusetts) included extending my unemployment by 5 months and the health care I had to pay was now a federal tax credit.  I was fortunate to be accepted into the program, got some additional training, used the extra unemployment and the tax credit. It took me a while but I was able to land a new position eventually. Definitely not something that HPE tells people about. So use the career center resources as much as you can."
 

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