SB 649

This bill makes various changes in the unemployment insurance (UI) law.

Significant provisions include:

Benefit changes

Approved training and extended training

Currently, benefits may not be denied to an otherwise eligible claimant because

the claimant is enrolled in a vocational training course or a basic education course

that is a prerequisite to such training ("approved training") under certain conditions.

Current law also permits a claimant who has exhausted all rights to benefits and is

enrolled in an approved training course that meets certain qualifications to

potentially qualify to receive up to 26 weeks of additional benefits while enrolled in

that training ("extended training"). This bill makes several changes to the provisions

governing approved training and extended training. The bill:

1. Provides that a claimant is not subject to certain disqualifications or

requalifying requirements that otherwise apply to claimants who leave or refuse

certain work after leaving certain temporary work, or after leaving on-the-job

training that fails to meet certain federal requirements within 30 days after

beginning that training.

2. Prohibits benefit reductions or disqualifications because a claimant is

enrolled in certain federally funded training.

3. Broadens the types of training that may be considered approved training

(thus precluding benefit denial or reduction during enrollment) to include certain

recently created programs administered by the Department of Workforce

Development (DWD) and certain training under the federal Workforce Investment

Act.

4. Provides that benefits for all claimants who are enrolled in approved training

(rather than only certain benefits as currently provided) are not charged to the

accounts of individual employers (thus potentially affecting employer contribution

(tax) rates) but are instead charged to the unemployment reserve fund's balancing

account (a pooled account funded by all employers who pay contributions to the

fund).

5. Eliminates a distinction between claimants who are totally unemployed and

claimants who are partially unemployed in applying certain general qualifying

requirements, one effect of which is to require DWD to determine whether a claimant

is enrolled in approved training before determining whether a claimant meets

certain other requirements to receive benefits, thereby enabling more prompt

payment of benefits to enrollees.

6. Eliminates a requirement that a claimant must be separated from

employment in a declining occupation or involuntarily separated as a result of a

permanent reduction in the operations of his or her employer in order to receive

extended training benefits.