SF 358 (LSB 1608XS (3) 91)

SENATE FILE 358

BY  DOTZLER, DONAHUE, WINCKLER, PETERSEN, STAED, BLAKE, TRONE GARRIOTT, BENNETT, and ZIMMER

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the maximum amount of unemployment benefits payable during a benefit year to an individual laid off due to an employer going out of business.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 96.3, subsection 5, paragraph a, Code 2025, 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 sixteen 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 twenty-six 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.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill provides that the maximum total amount of unemployment benefits payable during a benefit year to an eligible individual 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 shall not exceed 39 times the individual’s weekly benefit amount, rather than 26 times the weekly benefit amount as provided under current law.