HSB 602 (LSB 5400DP (2) 88)

SENATE/HOUSE FILE _____

BY  (PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BILL)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the maximum duration of unemployment benefits for certain individuals and including applicability provisions. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 96.3, subsection 5, paragraph a, Code 2020, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  Duration of benefits.  The maximum total amount of benefits payable to an eligible individual during a benefit year shall not exceed the total of the wage credits accrued to the individual’s account during the individual’s base period, or twenty-six times the individual’s weekly benefit amount, whichever is the lesser. The director shall maintain a separate account for each individual who earns wages in insured work. The director shall compute wage credits for each individual by crediting the individual’s account with one-third of the wages for insured work paid to the individual during the individual’s base period. However, the director shall recompute wage credits for an individual who is laid off due to the individual’s employer going out of business at the factory, establishment, or other premises at which the individual was last employed, by crediting the individual’s account with one-half, instead of one-third, of the wages for insured work paid to the individual during the individual’s base period. Benefits paid to an eligible individual shall be charged against the base period wage credits in the individual’s account which have not been previously charged, in the inverse chronological order as the wages on which the wage credits are based were paid. However if the state “off” indicator is in effect and if the individual is laid off due to the individual’s employer going out of business at the factory, establishment, or other premises at which the individual was last employed, the maximum benefits payable shall be extended to thirty-nine times the individual’s weekly benefit amount, but not to exceed the total of the wage credits accrued to the individual’s account.
    Sec. 2.  APPLICABILITY.  This Act applies to any week of unemployment benefits beginning on or after the first Sunday after the effective date of this Act.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill strikes language requiring the director of the department of workforce development to recompute wage credits for purposes of calculating an individual’s maximum total amount of unemployment benefits payable during a benefit year. The stricken language applied to an individual who is laid off due to the individual’s employer going out of business at the factory, establishment, or other premises at which the individual was last employed by crediting the individual’s account with one-half, instead of one-third, of the wages for insured work paid to the individual during the individual’s base period. The bill also strikes language providing an additional 13 weeks of benefits to such individuals if the state “off” indicator, which relates to the rate of insured unemployment in the state, is in effect. The bill applies to any week of unemployment benefits beginning on or after the first Sunday after the effective date of the bill.