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Public Act 92-0396
SB858 Enrolled LRB9201212RCcd
AN ACT in relation to unemployment insurance.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Unemployment Insurance Act is amended by
changing Sections 500 and 703 as follows:
(820 ILCS 405/500) (from Ch. 48, par. 420)
Sec. 500. Eligibility for benefits. An unemployed
individual shall be eligible to receive benefits with respect
to any week only if the Director finds that:
A. He has registered for work at and thereafter has
continued to report at an employment office in accordance
with such regulations as the Director may prescribe, except
that the Director may, by regulation, waive or alter either
or both of the requirements of this subsection as to
individuals attached to regular jobs, and as to such other
types of cases or situations with respect to which he finds
that compliance with such requirements would be oppressive or
inconsistent with the purposes of this Act, provided that no
such regulation shall conflict with Section 400 of this Act.
B. He has made a claim for benefits with respect to such
week in accordance with such regulations as the Director may
prescribe.
C. He is able to work, and is available for work;
provided that during the period in question he was actively
seeking work and he has certified such. Whenever requested
to do so by the Director, the individual shall, in the manner
the Director prescribes by regulation, inform the Department
of the places at which he has sought work during the period
in question. Nothing in this subsection shall limit the
Director's approval of alternate methods of demonstrating an
active search for work based on regular reporting to a trade
union office.
1. If an otherwise eligible individual is unable to
work or is unavailable for work on any normal workday of
the week, he shall be eligible to receive benefits with
respect to such week reduced by one-fifth of his weekly
benefit amount for each day of such inability to work or
unavailability for work. For the purposes of this
paragraph, an individual who reports on a day subsequent
to his designated report day shall be deemed unavailable
for work on his report day if his failure to report on
that day is without good cause, and on each intervening
day, if any, on which his failure to report is without
good cause. As used in the preceding sentence, "report
day" means the day which has been designated for the
individual to report to file his claim for benefits with
respect to any week. This paragraph shall not be
construed so as to effect any change in the status of
part-time workers as defined in Section 407.
2. An individual shall be considered to be
unavailable for work on days listed as whole holidays in
"An Act to revise the law in relation to promissory
notes, bonds, due bills and other instruments in
writing," approved March 18, 1874, as amended; on days
which are holidays in his religion or faith, and on days
which are holidays according to the custom of his trade
or occupation, if his failure to work on such day is a
result of the holiday. In determining the claimant's
eligibility for benefits and the amount to be paid him,
with respect to the week in which such holiday occurs, he
shall have attributed to him as additional earnings for
that week an amount equal to one-fifth of his weekly
benefit amount for each normal work day on which he does
not work because of a holiday of the type above
enumerated.
3. An individual shall be deemed unavailable for
work if, after his separation from his most recent
employing unit, he has removed himself to and remains in
a locality where opportunities for work are substantially
less favorable than those in the locality he has left.
4. An individual shall be deemed unavailable for
work with respect to any week which occurs in a period
when his principal occupation is that of a student in
attendance at, or on vacation from, a public or private
school.
5. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this
Act, an individual shall not be deemed unavailable for
work or to have failed actively to seek work, nor shall
he be ineligible for benefits by reason of the
application of the provisions of Section 603, with
respect to any week, because he is enrolled in and is in
regular attendance at a training course approved for him
by the Director:
(a) but only if, with respect to that week,
the individual presents, upon request, to the claims
adjudicator referred to in Section 702 a statement
executed by a responsible person connected with the
training course, certifying that the individual was
in full-time attendance at such course during the
week. The Director may approve such course for an
individual only if he finds that (1) reasonable work
opportunities for which the individual is fitted by
training and experience do not exist in his
locality; (2) the training course relates to an
occupation or skill for which there are, or are
expected to be in the immediate future, reasonable
work opportunities in his locality; (3) the training
course is offered by a competent and reliable
agency, educational institution, or employing unit;
(4) the individual has the required qualifications
and aptitudes to complete the course successfully;
and (5) the individual is not receiving and is not
eligible (other than because he has claimed benefits
under this Act) for subsistence payments or similar
assistance under any public or private retraining
program: Provided, that the Director shall not
disapprove such course solely by reason of clause
(5) if the subsistence payment or similar assistance
is subject to reduction by an amount equal to any
benefits payable to the individual under this Act in
the absence of the clause. In the event that an
individual's weekly unemployment compensation
benefit is less than his certified training
allowance, that person shall be eligible to receive
his entire unemployment compensation benefits, plus
such supplemental training allowances that would
make an applicant's total weekly benefit identical
to the original certified training allowance.
(b) The Director shall have the authority to
grant approval pursuant to subparagraph (a) above
prior to an individual's formal admission into a
training course. Requests for approval shall not be
made more than 30 days prior to the actual starting
date of such course. Requests shall be made at the
appropriate unemployment office. Notwithstanding any
other provision to the contrary, the Director shall
approve a course for an individual if the course is
provided to the individual under Title III of the
federal Job Training Partnership Act.
(c) The Director shall for purposes of
paragraph C have the authority to issue a blanket
approval of training programs implemented pursuant
to the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act and the
Job Training Partnership Act if both the training
program and the criteria for an individual's
participation in such training meet the requirements
of this paragraph C.
(d) Notwithstanding the requirements of
subparagraph (a), the Director shall have the
authority to issue blanket approval of training
programs implemented under the terms of a collective
bargaining agreement.
6. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this
Act, an individual shall not be deemed unavailable for
work or to have failed actively to seek work, nor shall
he be ineligible for benefits, by reason of the
application of the provisions of Section 603 with respect
to any week because he is in training approved under
Section 236 (a)(1) of the federal Trade Act of 1974, nor
shall an individual be ineligible for benefits under the
provisions of Section 601 by reason of leaving work
voluntarily to enter such training if the work left is
not of a substantially equal or higher skill level than
the individual's past adversely affected employment as
defined under the federal Trade Act of 1974 and the wages
for such work are less than 80% of his average weekly
wage as determined under the federal Trade Act of 1974.
D. If his benefit year begins prior to July 6, 1975 or
subsequent to January 2, 1982, he has been unemployed for a
waiting period of 1 week during such benefit year. If his
benefit year begins on or after July 6, l975, but prior to
January 3, 1982, and his unemployment continues for more than
three weeks during such benefit year, he shall be eligible
for benefits with respect to each week of such unemployment,
including the first week thereof. An individual shall be
deemed to be unemployed within the meaning of this subsection
while receiving public assistance as remuneration for
services performed on work projects financed from funds made
available to governmental agencies for such purpose. No week
shall be counted as a week of unemployment for the purposes
of this subsection:
1. Unless it occurs within the benefit year which
includes the week with respect to which he claims payment
of benefits, provided that, for benefit years beginning
prior to January 3, 1982, this requirement shall not
interrupt the payment of benefits for consecutive weeks
of unemployment; and provided further that the week
immediately preceding a benefit year, if part of one
uninterrupted period of unemployment which continues into
such benefit year, shall be deemed (for the purpose of
this subsection only and with respect to benefit years
beginning prior to January 3, 1982, only) to be within
such benefit year, as well as within the preceding
benefit year, if the unemployed individual would, except
for the provisions of the first paragraph and paragraph 1
of this subsection and of Section 605, be eligible for
and entitled to benefits for such week.
2. If benefits have been paid with respect thereto.
3. Unless the individual was eligible for benefits
with respect thereto except for the requirements of this
subsection and of Section 605.
E. With respect to any benefit year beginning prior to
January 3, 1982, he has been paid during his base period
wages for insured work not less than the amount specified in
Section 500E of this Act as amended and in effect on October
5, 1980. With respect to any benefit year beginning on or
after January 3, 1982, he has been paid during his base
period wages for insured work equal to not less than $1,600,
provided that he has been paid wages for insured work equal
to at least $440 during that part of his base period which
does not include the calendar quarter in which the wages paid
to him were highest.
F. During that week he has participated in reemployment
services to which he has been referred, including but not
limited to job search assistance services, pursuant to a
profiling system established by the Director by rule in
conformity with Section 303(j)(1) of the federal Social
Security Act, unless the Director determines that:
1. the individual has completed such services; or
2. there is justifiable cause for the claimant's
failure to participate in such services.
This subsection F is added by this amendatory Act of 1995
to clarify authority already provided under subsections A and
C in connection with the unemployment insurance claimant
profiling system required under subsections (a)(10) and
(j)(1) of Section 303 of the federal Social Security Act as a
condition of federal funding for the administration of the
Unemployment Insurance Act.
(Source: P.A. 89-21, eff. 6-6-95; 90-554, eff. 12-12-97.)
(820 ILCS 405/703) (from Ch. 48, par. 453)
Sec. 703. Reconsideration of findings or determinations.
The claims adjudicator may reconsider his finding at any
time within thirteen weeks after the close of the benefit
year. He may reconsider his determination at any time within
one year after the last day of the week for which the
determination was made, except that if the issue is whether
or not, by reason of a back pay award made by any
governmental agency or pursuant to arbitration proceedings,
or by reason of a payment of wages wrongfully withheld by an
employing unit, an individual has received wages for a week
with respect to which he or she has received benefits or if
the issue is whether or not the claimant misstated his
earnings for the week, such reconsidered determination may be
made at any time within 3 two years after the last day of the
week. No finding or determination shall be reconsidered at
any time after appeal therefrom has been taken pursuant to
the provisions of Section 800, except where a case has been
remanded to the claims adjudicator by a Referee, the Director
or the Board of Review, and except, further, that if an issue
as to whether or not the claimant misstated his earnings is
newly discovered, the determination may be reconsidered after
and notwithstanding the fact that the decision upon the
appeal has become final. Notice of such reconsidered
determination or reconsidered finding shall be promptly given
to the parties entitled to notice of the original
determination or finding, as the case may be, in the same
manner as is prescribed therefor, and such reconsidered
determination or reconsidered finding shall be subject to
appeal in the same manner and shall be given the same effect
as is provided for an original determination or finding.
(Source: P.A. 77-1443.)
Passed in the General Assembly May 23, 2001.
Approved August 16, 2001.
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