Specifications include, but are not limited to: DWD is looking for a Vendor who meets the necessary requirements to perform the payment distribution services for Indiana’s UI Program. The Vendor shall be responsible for distributing payments, managing account records, ensuring appropriate security measures and fraud detection methods are employed over the course of the Contract, providing customer service functionalities, and assisting with marketing efforts. The Vendor may receive payment from the State for administering these services and they may be entitled to earn interest on undistributed funds to the extent that a claimant has failed to authorize a distribution method. The Vendor is prohibited from charging fees to claimants related to the distribution of funds to the claimant’s designated payment method. The Vendor shall have a default payment method, generally a check or money-order, where the claimant has failed to authorize a payment method within ten business days after DWD authorizes a distribution. Where appropriate, the Vendor is expected to assist DWD in recovering any funds which are determined to have been returned to the originating financial institution or put into a claimant's account from the institution due to fraud, misappropriation, or other such acts. To be clear, DWD does not wish to sponsor, create, or authorize a UI related stored value card as a distribution method under this program. DWD encourages proposals to include best practices from other states and/or new and innovative ideas to be implemented in Indiana. DWD has implemented vigorous fraud and identity-theft prevention practices to assure that the individual authorized to receive benefits is the person that has applied for and been granted such benefits. DWD is particularly interested in the Vendor’s proposed fraud and identity-theft prevention with regard to verification that the distribution program user is the same individual identified by DWD as the rightful recipient of the distribution. DWD also seeks to understand the level of assistance the Vendor will have available in the instances where DWD shall show constructive receipt of funds by an individual, and the level of information that the Vendor will be able to provide to DWD for analysis of certain algorithms used in the detection of benefit fraud schemes. The Vendor is required to safeguard the funds distributed to them until the funds are distributed to the claimant through an FDIC insured depository or equivalent.
