2006 Utah Code - 35A-4-403 — Eligibility of individual -- Conditions -- Furnishing reports -- Weeks of employment -- Successive benefit years.

     35A-4-403.   Eligibility of individual -- Conditions -- Furnishing reports -- Weeks of employment -- Successive benefit years.
     (1) Except as provided in Subsection (2), an unemployed individual is eligible to receive benefits with respect to any week only if the division finds:
     (a) The individual has made a claim for benefits with respect to that week in accordance with any rules the department may prescribe.
     (b) The individual has registered for work at, and thereafter continued to report at, an employment office, in accordance with any rules the department may prescribe.
     (c) The individual is able to work and is available for work during each and every week with respect to which the individual made a claim for benefits under this chapter, and acted in good faith in an active effort to secure employment, except as provided in Subsection (3).
     (d) The individual has been unemployed for a waiting period of one week with respect to each benefit year. A week may not be counted as a week of unemployment for the purpose of this subsection:
     (i) unless it occurs within the benefit year that includes the week with respect to which the individual's claims benefits;
     (ii) if benefits have been paid with respect to the claim; or
     (iii) unless the individual was eligible for benefits with respect thereto as provided in this section and Sections 35A-4-401 and 35A-4-405, except for the requirement of Subsection (1)(d).
     (e) (i) The individual has furnished the division separation and other information the department may by rule prescribe.
     (ii) Subsection (1)(e) does not apply if the individual proves to the satisfaction of the division that the individual had good cause for failing to furnish the information.
     (iii) If any employer fails to furnish reports concerning separation and employment as required by this chapter and rules adopted under the chapter, the division shall on the basis of such information as it may obtain, determine the eligibility and insured status of any individual affected by that failure and the employer is not considered to be an interested party to any such determination.
     (f) The individual's base period wages were at least 1-1/2 times the individual's wages for insured work paid during that quarter of the individual's base period in which the individual's wages were highest or the individual shows to the satisfaction of the division that the individual worked at least 20 weeks in insured work during the individual's base period and earned wages of at least 5% of the monetary base period wage requirement each week, rounded to the nearest whole dollar, provided that the individual's total base-period wages were not less than the monetary base period wage requirement. The monetary base period wage requirement is defined in Section 35A-4-201.
     (g) The individual applying for benefits in a successive benefit year has had subsequent employment since the effective date of the preceding benefit year equal to at least six times the individual's weekly benefit amount, in insured work, and the individual's total wages and employment experience in the individual's base period meet the requirements specified in Subsection (1)(f).
     (2) (a) An individual in training with the approval of the division is not ineligible to receive benefits by reason of nonavailability for work, failure to search for work, refusal of suitable work, failure to apply for or to accept suitable work, or not having been unemployed for a waiting period of one week with respect to any week the individual is in the approved training.

For purposes of this Subsection (2)(a), the division shall approve any mandatory apprenticeship-related training.
     (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, no otherwise eligible individual shall be denied benefits for any week:
     (i) because the individual is in training approved under Section 236 (a)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. 2296(a);
     (ii) for leaving work to enter training described in Subsection (2)(b)(i) if the work left is not suitable employment; or
     (iii) because of the application to any such week in training of provisions in this law or any applicable federal unemployment compensation law relating to availability for work, active search for work, or refusal to accept work.
     (c) For purposes of this Subsection (2), "suitable employment" means work of a substantially equal or higher skill level than the individual's past adversely affected employment, as defined for purposes of the Trade Act of 1974, and wages for that work at not less than 80% of the individual's average weekly wage as determined for the purposes of the Trade Act of 1974.
     (3) The department may, by rule, waive or alter either or both of the requirements of Subsections (1)(a) and (b) as to individuals attached to regular jobs and as to other types of cases or situations with respect to which it finds that compliance with the requirements would be oppressive, or would be inconsistent with the purposes of this chapter as long as the rules do not conflict with Subsection 35A-4-401(1).

Amended by Chapter 80, 1999 General Session