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
It is best practice for HR Coordinators, or those in the department responsible for completing PAFs, to confirm a student’s FWS eligibility and award prior to completion of the PAF. This ensures the appropriate position number is being used. FWS awards are confirmed via the University of Nebraska Work Study Verification website using the student’s name or NUID. NULook security is required to use this website and needs to be requested for those employees responsible for verifying FWS for eligible students. Access can be requested via the NU ITS Request for Access to Data Systems website. A student’s FWS award is also entered and can be viewed in SAP (IT9008), if the student has an active SAP record at the time of inquiry.
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 by UNL departments monitoring the use of FWS funds each semester. 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.
When work study aid is available, the employing department must use it. Payroll sends a monthly report to the SAP HR ListServ showing work-study eligible students and their work study balance. There are also Business Intelligence work study reports that can be run to show the amount of a student’s FWS funds that have been used and how much 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.