Changes in unemployment insurance legislation during 1983, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, February 1984

Changes in unemployment insurance
legislation during 1983

Diana Runner

The Federal Supplemental Compensation (FSC) program, established by the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, was amended by the Surface Transportation Act of 1982 to increase the minimum and maximum weeks of unemployment benefits available and to change the triggers for which each level of benefits was payable. To ensure that the long-term unemployed will continue to receive assistance while looking for work, the FSC program was further amended by the Social Security Amendments of 1983 to extend the program through March 1985, but the maximum weeks of benefits available were reduced from 16 to 14.

Also as a result of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, 35 States¹ amended their laws to deny unemployment benefits to nonteaching, nonsearch, and nonadministrative employees of colleges and universities during periods between academic years or terms, if there is reasonable assurance that such individuals will be employed by the institution at the beginning of the forthcoming academic year or term. If a school employee is denied interim benefits and is not offered an opportunity for reemployment during the succeeding school year or term, such individual shall be entitled to retroactive payment for each week for which a timely claim for benefits was filed and for which compensation was denied based solely on the between-terms criterion. Thirty-two States² amended their laws to round unemployment benefits down to the next lower dollar. Fifteen States³ extended the period of time during which a State may use Reed Act⁴ funds for cost of administration. Nineteen States⁵ removed the age-22 limitation for exclusion from coverage of services performed by students in a work-study program. The exclusion from coverage of aliens performing agricultural labor was extended to January 1, 1984, by six States.⁶

This excerpt is from an article published in the February 1984 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1 Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, ' Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

2 Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

3 Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

4 By the terms of the 1954 Reed Act, funds in excess of the legal maximum in the Federal Unemployment Account are distributed to the States to be used for administrative costs.

5 Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

6 Alabama, Colorado, Nebraska, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming.

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