WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2022 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

Senate Bill 2

By Senator Takubo

[Introduced January 12, 2022; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]

A BILL to amend and reenact §21A-2D-1, §21A-2D-2, and §21A-2D-3, of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §21A-2D-6A; to amend said code by adding thereto a new article, designated §21A-3-1, §21A-3-2, and §21A-3-3; and to amend and reenact §21A-6-10 of said code, all relating to unemployment benefits program; adding definition of “state average unemployment rate” and making technical changes to definitions; increasing requirements to verify claim program integrity; providing for automatic eligibility review in certain circumstances; redesignating code sections; establishing formula to correlate duration of benefits to unemployment rate; providing for rulemaking; setting effective date; and reducing period of maximum duration of benefits.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 2D.  UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM INTEGRITY ACT.

§21A-2D-1. Definitions.

This article may be cited as the Unemployment Insurance Program Integrity Act. For the purposes of this article the following terms shall have the following meanings, unless the context in which they are used clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) “Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation” means the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as defined in §15A-3-2 of this code.

(2) “Department of Commerce” means the Department of Commerce, as defined in §5B-1-1 of this code.

(3) “New hire records” means any available directory of newly hired and re-hired employees reported under state and federal law and managed by the state Department of Commerce.

(4) “Unemployment insurance enrollment” means the list of all jobless workers receiving unemployment insurance at a given moment in time.

(5) “Commissioner” means the Workforce West Virginia Commissioner, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs’ Commissioner, as defined in §21A-1A-12 of this code.

(6) “Bureau” means Workforce West Virginia, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs, as defined in §21A-1-4 of this code

“Bureau” means Workforce West Virginia, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs, as defined in §21A-1-4 of this code.

“Commissioner” means the Workforce West Virginia Commissioner, formerly known as the Bureau of Employment Programs’ Commissioner, as defined in §21A-1A-12 of this code.

“Department of Commerce” means the Department of Commerce, as defined in §5B-1-1 of this code.

“Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation” means the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as defined in §15A-3-2 of this code.

“New hire records” means any available directory of newly hired and re-hired employees reported under state and federal law and managed by the state Department of Commerce.

“State average unemployment rate” means the average of the seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for the months comprising the previous quarter of the most recent calendar year as published by Workforce West Virginia.

“Unemployment insurance enrollment” means the list of all jobless workers receiving unemployment insurance at a given moment in time.

§21A-2D-2. Unemployment insurance program integrity.

The commissioner shall, on a weekly basis, unless otherwise specified: be required to

(a) (1) Check the unemployment insurance rolls against the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s list of imprisoned individuals to verify eligibility for unemployment benefits and ensure program integrity;

(b) (2) Check new hire records against the National Directory of New Hires to verify eligibility for unemployment benefits; and

(c) (3) Check the unemployment insurance rolls against a commercially available database that provides cross-matching functions to verify eligibility for unemployment benefits;

(4) On a monthly basis, cross-check the unemployment insurance rolls against state death records; and

(5) Verify the identity of unemployment claimants by methods including, but not limited to, verifying the identity of an applicant prior to awarding benefits and requiring multi-factor authentication as part of online applications.

§21A-2D-2A. Automatic Claim Review.

The commissioner shall perform a full eligibility review of suspicious or potentially improper claims in cases including, but not limited to:

(1) Multiple or duplicative claims filed online originating from the same IP address;

(2) Claims filed online from foreign IP addresses;

(3) Multiple or duplicative claims filed that are associated with the same mailing address; and

(4) Multiple or duplicative claims filed that are associated with the same bank account.

§21A-2D-3. Data sharing.

The commissioner shall have the authority to may execute a memorandum of understanding with any department, agency, or division for information required to be shared between agencies outlined in this article.

ARTICLE 3. Unemployment BENEFITS Indexing.

§21A-3-1. Duration of benefits; calculation.

For all valid unemployment compensation claims submitted during a calendar year, the duration of benefits shall be:

(1) Limited to a duration of 12 weeks if the state average unemployment rate is at or below 5.5 percent;

(2) Extended an additional week, in addition to the 12-week period, for each 0.5 percent increment increase in the state’s average unemployment rate above 5.5 percent; and

(3) Limited to a maximum duration of 20 weeks if the state’s average unemployment rate exceeds nine percent.

§21A-3-2. Rule-making.

Workforce West Virginia shall promulgate rules for legislative approval in accordance with §29A-3-1 et seq. of this code.

§21A-3-3. Effective date.

The provisions of this article shall take effect on January 1, 2023.

ARTICLE 6. EMPLOYEE ELIGIBILITY; BENEFITS.

§21A-6-10. Benefit rate -- Total unemployment; annual computation and publication of rates.

(a) Each eligible individual who is totally unemployed in any week shall be paid benefits with respect to that week at the weekly rate appearing in Column (C) in the benefit table in this section, on the line on which in Column (A) there is indicated the employee’s wage class, except as otherwise provided under the term “total and partial unemployment” in §21A-1A-27 of this code. The employee’s wage class shall be determined by his or her base period wages as shown in Column (B) in the benefit table. The right of an employee to receive benefits shall may not be prejudiced nor the amount thereof be diminished by reason of failure by an employer to pay either the wages earned by the employee or the contribution due on such wages. An individual who is totally unemployed but earns in excess of $60 as a result of odd job or subsidiary work, or is paid a bonus in any benefit week shall be paid benefits for such week in accordance with the provisions of this chapter pertaining to benefits for partial unemployment.

(b) (1) The maximum benefit for each wage class shall be equal to twenty-six 20 times the weekly benefit rate.

(2) The maximum benefit rate shall be 66 2/3 percent of the average weekly wage in West Virginia.

(c) On July 1 of each year, the commissioner shall determine the maximum weekly benefit rate upon the basis of the formula set forth above and shall establish wage classes as are required, increasing or decreasing the amount of the base period wages required for each wage class by $150, establishing the weekly benefit rate for each wage class by rounded dollar amount to be 55 percent of one fifty-second  of the median dollar amount of wages in the base period for such wage class and establishing the maximum benefit for each wage class as an amount equal to twenty-six 20 times the weekly benefit rate: Provided, That the commissioner shall may not increase or decrease the maximum weekly benefit rate for the period beginning on the effective date of the amendment and reenactment of this section in the regular session of the Legislature in 2009 until the threshold wage is reduced to $9,000, as required by §21A-1A-28(d) of this code. The maximum weekly benefit rate, when computed by the commissioner, in accordance with the foregoing provisions, shall be rounded to the next lowest multiple of $1.

(d) After he or she has established such the wage classes, the commissioner shall prepare and publish a table setting forth such that information.

(e) Average weekly wage shall be computed by dividing the number of employees in West Virginia earning wages in covered employment into the total wages paid to employees in West Virginia in covered employment, and by further dividing said the result by 52, and shall be determined from employer wage and contribution reports for the previous calendar year which are furnished to the department on or before June 1 following such calendar year. The average weekly wage, as determined by the commissioner, shall be rounded to the next higher dollar.

(f) The computation and determination of rates as aforesaid shall be completed annually before July 1 and any such new wage class, with its corresponding wages in base period, weekly benefit rate and maximum benefit in a benefit year established by the commissioner in the foregoing manner effective on July 1 shall apply only to a new claim established by a claimant on and after July 1, and does not apply to continued claims of a claimant based on his or her new claim established before said July 1.

BENEFIT TABLE

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create additional eligibility verification for benefits, reduce the maximum duration of benefits period, and implement a system to link the duration of benefits to state economic performance.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.