Federal Work-Study (FWS) is a program that provides part-time jobs during the academic year and full- or part-time jobs during the summer for students who demonstrate exceptional financial need, allowing them to earn money to help pay for educational expenses. Jobs may be on or off campus with a public or private nonprofit agency including jobs in the community service areas. (Source: https://financialaid.unl.edu/work-study)
Confirming Eligibility
At the time a student worker’s new hire paperwork and Personnel Action Form (PAF) are completed, the individual responsible for the hiring paperwork—typically the department HR Coordinator—should confirm whether the student has a Federal Work Study (FWS) award. The student should first be asked if they have been awarded Federal Work Study. If the student has an SAP record at the time of inquiry, a student’s FWS award can be viewed in SAP (IT9008).
If the student does not yet have an SAP record, FWS eligibility can be verified using the MyRED FWS Lookup tool. Business Center HR Staff who need access must request it through the MyRED access request form on the Registrar’s website. The request requires supervisor approval and is reviewed by the Registrar’s security team and the Financial Aid office before access is granted. Once approved, the requestor will be notified and provided instructions for using the lookup tool.
NOTE: NRA students are not eligible for FWS.
Time Entry
The student worker must code Federal Work-Study hours in ESS Time with the appropriate FWS wage type code: WSR, WSS, or WST -- see Attendance Codes. This ensures the hours worked are appropriately charged against their available FWS funds. If the incorrect FWS wage type code is used (WSR for hours worked in July, for example), the hours will still be charged against the student’s FWS funds, however, it will result in inaccurate reporting each semester by UNL departments monitoring the use of FWS funds. Once the FWS funds have been exhausted, the time coordinator should notify the supervisor to have the student code their hours as TEM. However, if the hours are not coded as TEM and no funds are available, the system will automatically flip the wage type code to TEM.
Ensure Use
When work study aid is available, the employing department must use it. There are work-study reports in Business Intelligence (BI) that show work-study eligible students and the amount of a student's FWS funds that have been used and how much time remains. If a time coordinator does not see the Work Study tile in Firefly (outlined in red below), they may request it via the Firefly SAP Security Request tile.
Troubleshooting
If a student worker receives a hard warning in ESS Time when trying to code their time using a work study wage type, it is likely that the cost object the hours are being charged to is not included on a work study table in SAP. When this occurs, email payroll@unl.edu requesting the cost object be added to the work study table in SAP. Once it is added, the student worker will be able to enter their hours.