2016 Nebraska Revised Statutes
Chapter 48 - LABOR
48-627 Benefits; eligibility conditions; availability for work; requirements.

48-627. Benefits; eligibility conditions; availability for work; requirements.

An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive benefits with respect to any week, only if the Commissioner of Labor finds:

(1) He or she has registered for work at, and thereafter continued to report at, an employment office in accordance with such rules and regulations as the commissioner may prescribe, except that the commissioner may, by rule and regulation, waive or alter either or both of the requirements of this subdivision as to individuals attached to regular jobs and as to such other types of cases or situations, with respect to which he or she finds that compliance with such requirements, would be oppressive, or would be inconsistent with the purposes of the Employment Security Law, except that no such rule or regulation shall conflict with section 48-623;

(2) He or she has made a claim for benefits, in accordance with section 48-629;

(3) He or she is able to work and is available for work. No individual, who is otherwise eligible, shall be deemed ineligible, or unavailable for work, because he or she is on vacation without pay during such week, if such vacation is not the result of his or her own action as distinguished from any collective action by a collective-bargaining agent or other action beyond his or her individual control, and regardless of whether he or she has not been notified of the vacation at the time of his or her hiring. An individual who is otherwise eligible shall not be deemed unavailable for work or failing to engage in an active work search solely because such individual is seeking part-time work if the majority of the weeks of work in an individual's base period include part-time work. For purposes of this subdivision, seeking only part-time work shall mean seeking less than full-time work having comparable hours to the individual's part-time work in the base period, except that the individual must be available for work at least twenty hours per week. Receipt of a non-service-connected total disability pension by a veteran at the age of sixty-five or more shall not of itself bar the veteran from benefits as not able to work. An otherwise eligible individual while engaged in a training course approved for him or her by the commissioner shall be considered available for work for the purposes of this section. An inmate in a penal or custodial institution shall be considered unavailable for work for purposes of this section;

(4) He or she has been unemployed for a waiting period of one week. No week shall be counted as a week of unemployment for the purpose of this subdivision (a) unless it occurs within the benefit year, which includes the week with respect to which he or she claims payment of benefits, (b) if benefits have been paid with respect thereto, or (c) unless the individual was eligible for benefits with respect thereto, as provided in sections 48-627 and 48-628, except for the requirements of this subdivision and of subdivision (6) of section 48-628;

(5)(a) For any benefit year beginning on or after January 1, 2006, he or she has, within his or her base period, been paid a total sum of wages for employment by employers equal to not less than two thousand five hundred dollars, of which sum at least eight hundred dollars has been paid in each of two quarters in his or her base period, and subsequent to filing the claim which establishes the previous benefit year, the individual has earned wages in insured work of at least six times his or her weekly benefit amount for the previous benefit year.

(b) For any benefit year beginning on or after July 1, 2011, he or she has (i) within his or her base period, been paid a total sum of wages for employment by employers equal to not less than three thousand seven hundred seventy dollars, of which sum at least one thousand eight hundred fifty dollars has been paid in one quarter in his or her base period and eight hundred dollars has been paid in a second quarter of his or her base period, and (ii) subsequent to filing the claim which establishes the previous benefit year, earned wages in insured work of at least six times his or her weekly benefit amount for the previous benefit year. Commencing January 1, 2012, and each January 1 thereafter, the amount which an individual is required to earn within his or her base period shall be adjusted annually. The adjusted amount shall be equal to the then current amount adjusted by the cumulative percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers published by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics for the one-year period ending on the previous September 30.

(c) For the purposes of this subdivision (5), (i) for the determination of monetary eligibility, wages paid within a base period shall not include wages from any calendar quarter previously used to establish a valid claim for benefits, (ii) wages shall be counted as wages for insured work for benefit purposes with respect to any benefit year only if such benefit year begins subsequent to the date on which the employer, by whom such wages were paid, has satisfied the conditions of section 48-603 or subsection (3) of section 48-661, with respect to becoming an employer, and (iii) with respect to weeks of unemployment beginning on or after January 1, 1978, wages for insured work for benefit purposes with respect to any benefit year shall include wages paid for services as defined by subdivision (4)(a), (b), (c), or (d) of section 48-604 to the extent that such services were not services in employment under subdivision (4)(a) of section 48-604 or section 48-661 immediately prior to September 2, 1977, even though the employer by whom such wages were paid had not satisfied the conditions of subdivision (8), (9), (10), or (11) of section 48-603 with respect to becoming an employer at the time such wages were paid except to the extent that assistance under Title II of the federal Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974 was paid on the basis of such services; and

(6) He or she is participating in reemployment services at no cost to such individual as directed by the commissioner, such as job search assistance services, if the individual has been determined to be likely to exhaust regular benefits and to need reemployment services pursuant to a profiling system established by rule and regulation of the commissioner which is in compliance with section 303(j)(1) of the federal Social Security Act, unless the commissioner determines that: (a) The individual has completed such services; or (b) there is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to participate in such services.

Source

• Laws 1937, c. 108, § 4, p. 376;
• Laws 1939, c. 56, § 3, p. 235;
• Laws 1941, c. 94, § 3, p. 383;
• C.S.Supp.,1941, § 48-704;
• R.S.1943, § 48-627;
• Laws 1945, c. 115, § 3, p. 382;
• Laws 1949, c. 163, § 10, p. 425;
• Laws 1953, c. 167, § 6, p. 531;
• Laws 1955, c. 190, § 6, p. 543;
• Laws 1957, c. 209, § 2, p. 739;
• Laws 1959, c. 230, § 1, p. 804;
• Laws 1961, c. 241, § 1, p. 717;
• Laws 1963, c. 291, § 3, p. 872;
• Laws 1963, c. 292, § 1, p. 875;
• Laws 1971, LB 651, § 5;
• Laws 1973, LB 372, § 1;
• Laws 1977, LB 509, § 4;
• Laws 1981, LB 470, § 2;
• Laws 1985, LB 339, § 21;
• Laws 1987, LB 446, § 2;
• Laws 1987, LB 469, § 1;
• Laws 1988, LB 1033, § 2;
• Laws 1995, LB 1, § 8;
• Laws 1995, LB 240, § 1;
• Laws 1998, LB 225, § 2;
• Laws 2005, LB 484, § 5;
• Laws 2005, LB 739, § 9;
• Laws 2010, LB1020, § 3.

Annotations

• Availability is required for eligibility to receive unemployment compensation benefits. Robinson v. Commissioner of Labor, 267 Neb. 579, 675 N.W.2d 683 (2004).

• Without an order from the sentencing court granting the privilege to leave the jail for work, an inmate was not "available" for work under this section. Robinson v. Commissioner of Labor, 267 Neb. 579, 675 N.W.2d 683 (2004).

• This section describes weekly requirements for continuing eligibility and does not address the reasons why a person became unemployed or threshold questions of eligibility. Ponderosa Villa v. Hughes, 224 Neb. 627, 399 N.W.2d 813 (1987).

• A lump-sum severance allowance paid to a claimant is not to be prorated to the calendar quarters immediately following the date of payment in order to determine whether the monetary eligibility requirements of subdivision (e) of this section have been met. Sorensen v. Meyer, 220 Neb. 457, 370 N.W.2d 173 (1985).

• The provision that a claimant earn a certain amount of wages during any benefit year and during each of two quarters thereof is intended to prevent a claimant from electing to simply collect unemployment benefits rather than work. Sorensen v. Meyer, 220 Neb. 457, 370 N.W.2d 173 (1985).

• A professional symphony musician employed under a seasonal contract rather than an annual contract was entitled to unemployment benefits for the time he was unemployed during the symphony's "off season". Hanlon v. Boden, 209 Neb. 169, 306 N.W.2d 858 (1981).

• Registration for work alone is not sufficient to show prima facie a right to benefits. Hunter v. Miller, 148 Neb. 402, 27 N.W.2d 638 (1947).

• For purposes of section 48-628(7), a student is not "registered for full attendance" and therefore disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits if the student's educational program allows him or her to remain "available for work" pursuant to subdivision (3) of this section. Lecuona v. Cramer, 14 Neb. App. 770, 714 N.W.2d 786 (2006).