HB2108

THE CONTEXT: The Department of Economic Security (DES) administers the unemployment insurance benefit program, which provides temporary financial relief to eligible unemployed individuals who separate from their previous employers at no fault of their own. In order to be eligible for UI benefits, an individual must be able to work, available for work and actively seeking work.

WHAT THE BILL DID: The final vetoed version would revise the UI eligibility requirements by: a) reinserting that a person must be available for work; b) removing the requirement that a person must make an effort to obtain work and search for work on at least 4 different days of the week; c) specifying a person must actively seek and apply for suitable work; d) requiring a person to conduct at least five specified work search action each week; and e) instructing the individual to provide a weekly report that details the work search actions for every week a benefit is sought, prevents DES from paying UI benefits until an initial or ongoing claim is cross-checked for validity against outlined data sets, and stipulate a claim will not be paid and the claimant is disqualified from receiving benefits and referred for prosecution if a cross-check indicates that the claim is ineligible or fraudulent.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to give the people who rely on the rule clearer information and a defined reporting process. It would revise the UI eligibility requirements by: a) reinserting that a person must be available for work; b) removing the requirement that a person must make an effort to obtain work and search for work on at least 4 different days of the week; c) specifying a person must actively seek and apply for suitable work; d) requiring a person to conduct at least five specified work search action each week; and e) instructing the individual to provide a weekly report that details the work search actions for every week a benefit is sought, and would also prevents DES from paying UI benefits until an initial or ongoing claim is cross-checked for validity against outlined data sets, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.