SECOND REGULAR SESSION
[P E R F E C T E D]
SENATE BILL NO. 932
92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR LOUDON.
Pre-filed December 8, 2003, and ordered printed.
Read 2nd time January 15, 2004, and referred to the Committee on Small Business, Insurance and Industrial Relations.
Reported from the Committee February 2, 2004, with recommendation that the bill do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar.
Taken up February 9, 2004. Read 3rd time and placed upon its final passage; bill passed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
3073S.01P
AN ACT
To repeal section 288.060, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to employment.
Section A. Section 288.060, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 288.060, to read as follows:
288.060. 1. All benefits shall be paid through employment offices in accordance with such regulations as the division may prescribe.
2. Each eligible insured worker who is totally unemployed in any week shall be paid for such week a sum equal to his weekly benefit amount.
3. Each eligible insured worker who is partially unemployed in any week shall be paid for such week a partial benefit. Such partial benefit shall be an amount equal to the difference between his weekly benefit amount and that part of his wages for such week in excess of twenty dollars, and, if such partial benefit amount is not a multiple of one dollar, such amount shall be reduced to the nearest lower full dollar amount. Termination pay, severance pay or pay received by an eligible insured worker who is a member of the organized militia for training or duty authorized by section 502(a)(1) of Title 32, United States Code[, or who is an elected official] shall not be considered wages for the purpose of this subsection.
4. The division shall compute the wage credits for each individual by crediting him with the wages paid to him for insured work during each quarter of his base period or twenty-six times his weekly benefit amount, whichever is the lesser. In addition, if a claimant receives wages in the form of termination pay or severance pay and such payment appears in a base period established by the filing of an initial claim, the claimant may, at his option, choose to have such payment included in the calendar quarter in which it was paid or choose to have it prorated equally among the quarters comprising the base period of the claim. The maximum total amount of benefits payable to any insured worker during any benefit year shall not exceed twenty-six times his weekly benefit amount, or thirty-three and one-third percent of his wage credits, whichever is the lesser. For the purpose of this section, wages shall be counted as wage credits for any benefit year, only if such benefit year begins subsequent to the date on which the employing unit by whom such wages were paid has become an employer. The wage credits of an individual earned during the period commencing with the end of a prior base period and ending on the date on which he filed an allowed initial claim shall not be available for benefit purposes in a subsequent benefit year unless, in addition thereto, such individual has subsequently earned either wages for insured work in an amount equal to at least five times his current weekly benefit amount or wages in an amount equal to at least ten times his current weekly benefit amount.
5. In the event that benefits are due a deceased person and no petition has been filed for the probate of the will or for the administration of the estate of such person within thirty days after his death, the division may by regulation provide for the payment of such benefits to such person or persons as the division finds entitled thereto and every such payment shall be a valid payment to the same extent as if made to the legal representatives of the deceased.
6. The division is authorized to cancel any benefit warrant remaining outstanding and unpaid one year after the date of its issuance and there shall be no liability for the payment of any such benefit warrant thereafter.
7. The division may establish an electronic funds transfer system to transfer directly to claimants' accounts in financial institutions benefits payable to them pursuant to this chapter. To receive benefits by electronic funds transfer, a claimant shall satisfactorily complete a direct deposit application form authorizing the division to deposit benefit payments into a designated checking or savings account. Any electronic funds transfer system created pursuant to this subsection shall be administered in accordance with regulations prescribed by the division.
8. The division may issue a benefit warrant covering more than one week of benefits.