EEOC Informal Discussion Letter

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

EEOC Office of Legal Counsel staff members wrote the following informal discussion letter in response to an inquiry from a member of the public. This letter is intended to provide an informal discussion of the noted issue and does not constitute an official opinion of the Commission.

RE: Non-EEOC Issue: Federal Financial Assistance

October 13, 2009

Dear:

The Acting Chairman of the EEOC asked my office to respond to your letter, which we received on September 15, 2009. You requested information regarding grants for disabled individuals or disadvantaged felons with respect to education, transportation, and home living.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) itself does not provide federal financial assistance. Once people are employed, the EEOC investigates if they file formal complaints with the EEOC about employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, and disability.

Other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor may be helpful. The U.S. Department of Labor has a program called “Work Opportunity Tax Credits.” It gives employers sizeable tax credits if they hire and train people who fall into several categories including:

• Vocational Rehabilitation Referrals. An individual who completed or is completing rehabilitative services from a State certified agency, an Employment Network, or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; and
• Qualified Ex-Felons. An individual who has been convicted of a felony and has a hiring date which is not more than one year after the last date on which he was convicted or released from prison.

The U.S. Department of Labor runs the Work Opportunity Tax Credit program through the fifty “State Employment Security Agencies.” I cannot be certain which agency does this for Pennsylvania, but it appears that the Commonwealth Workforce Development System (“CWDS”) is the central agency for Pennsylvania. It links businesses and individuals to Pennsylvania’s workforce development and independent living services, which are offered through the:

• PA Department of Labor & Industry
  •  
  • PA CareerLink
  • Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR); and
• PA Department of Public Welfare
  •  
  • Bureau of Employment & Training Programs

If you have computer access, each of these agencies has an Internet website describing the services they offer to Pennsylvania residents. They probably also are listed in the phone book for Harrisburg, the state capitol.

I hope this information is helpful to you. This is not a formal opinion of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sincerely,



Carol R. Miaskoff
Assistant Legal Counsel

This page was last modified on January 25, 2010.

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