2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 24 - Labor
Chapter 12 - Virgin Islands Unemployment Insurance
§ 310. Unemployment Insurance Fund—Establishment and control

(a) There is hereby established in the Treasury of the Virgin Islands as a special fund, separate and apart from all public money or funds of the Virgin Islands, an Unemployment Fund, which shall be administered by the Commissioner of Labor exclusively for the purposes of this chapter. This fund shall consist of: (1) all contributions and payments in lieu of contributions collected pursuant to the provisions of this chapter; (2) all interest earned upon any money in this Unemployment Fund; (3) all property or securities acquired in lieu of contributions or other liabilities to this Unemployment Fund; (4) all earnings of such property or securities; (5) all money recovered on losses sustained by this Unemployment Fund; (6) all money received from the Federal unemployment account in the Unemployment Trust Fund in accordance with Title XII of the Social Security Act, as amended; (7) all money credited to the Virgin Islands' account in the Unemployment Trust Fund pursuant to Section 903 of the Social Security Act, as amended; and (8) all money received for this Unemployment Fund from any other source. All money in the Unemployment Fund shall be commingled and undivided. This Unemployment Fund shall be commingled and undivided. This Unemployment Fund shall be established effective on the day after the date of approval of the Virgin Islands Unemployment Insurance Act by the United States Secretary of Labor pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 3304(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, at which time the “Unemployment Subfund” within the “Trust and Legacy Fund” shall be cancelled and thereafter cease to exist and the provisions of this subsection (a) as in effect prior to such date shall thereafter be inoperative and of no effect.

• [Separate accounts within the Unemployment Fund]

  • (b)

    • (1) The Commissioner of Finance shall be the treasurer and custodian of the Unemployment Fund.

    • (2) The Commissioner shall maintain within the Unemployment Fund three separate accounts: a clearing account, an Unemployment Trust Fund Account, and a benefit account. The benefit account shall consist of all money requisitioned from the account of the Virgin Islands in the Unemployment Trust Fund in the Treasury of the United States for the payment of unemployment benefits. All money payable to the Unemployment Fund shall, upon receipt thereof by the Commissioner, be immediately deposited in the clearing account, unless deposited directly in the Unemployment Trust Fund Account in accordance with Federal law.

    • (3) Except as herein otherwise provided with respect to refunds of contributions or payments in lieu of contributions, all money in the clearing account which is payable to the Unemployment Fund shall, after clearance, be deposited immediately with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America to the credit of the account of the Virgin Islands in the Unemployment Trust Fund established and maintained pursuant to Section 904 of the Social Security Act, as amended, notwithstanding any provision of law of the Virgin Islands relating to the deposit, administration, investment, release, or disbursement of money in the possession or custody of the Government of the Virgin Islands to the contrary.

    • (4) Refunds of contributions or payments in lieu of contributions or penalty or interest which pursuant to section 309(d)(1) of this chapter are payable from the Unemployment Fund, shall be paid from the clearing account. Interest and penalty payments may, upon receipt thereof by the Commissioner, be deposited in the clearing account but only for purposes of clearance and shall not become a part of the Unemployment Fund. After clearance, the moneys derived from such payments shall be transferred to the Penalty and Interest Fund. Refunds of any such payments shall be made pursuant to the provisions of section 309(d)(1) of this chapter from the Penalty and Interest Fund.

    • (5) Except as herein otherwise provided, money in the clearing and benefit accounts which is payable to the Unemployment Fund may be deposited in any depository bank in which the general funds of the Government of the Virgin Islands may be deposited, but no public deposit insurance charge or premium shall be paid out of the Unemployment Fund. Such money in the clearing and benefit accounts shall not be commingled with other funds of the Government of the Virgin Islands, but shall be maintained in separate accounts on the books of the depository bank and shall be secured by the depository bank in which it is held to the same extent and in the same manner as required for all other funds of the Government of the nited States Virgin Islands. The Commissioner shall give a bond conditioned upon the faithful performance of his duties as custodian and treasurer of the Unemployment Fund in an amount not to exceed $100,000. The bond shall be approved as to legality and form by the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands.

• Expenditures from the Penalty and Interest Fund

  • (c) Expenditures of money in the benefit account and refunds from the clearing account or the Penalty and Interest Fund shall not be subject to any provision of law requiring specific appropriations or other formal release by officials of the Government of the Virgin Islands of money in their custody. All warrants issued for the payment of benefits or refunds of contributions or payments in lieu of contributions shall be on the authority of and bear the signature of the Commissioner of Labor, and shall be submitted by him to the Commissioner of Finance for payment thereof; Provided, however, That notwithstanding the provisions of section 3202 of Title 33, the Commissioner may designate an officer or employee of the Virgin Islands Employment Security Agency as a disbursing officer for the payment of benefits only.

• [Advances and repayment]

  • (d) The Governor of the Territory of the Virgin Islands is authorized to apply as necessary for advances to the Unemployment Fund of the Virgin Islands from the Federal Unemployment Account in the Unemployment Trust Fund, and to accept the responsibility for the repayment of such advance in accordance with the conditions specified in Title III of the Emergency Compensation and Special Unemployment Assistance Extension Act of 1975, as amended, Title XII of the Social Security Act and section 3302(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 in order to secure to the Virgin Islands the advantages available under the provisions of such laws.

• [Requisitioned money]

  • (e)

    • (1) Money requisitioned from the account of the Virgin Islands in the Unemployment Trust Fund shall be used exclusively for the payment of benefits pursuant to this chapter, except that money credited to the Virgin Islands' account pursuant to Section 903 of the Social Security Act, as amended, shall be used exclusively as provided in subsection (f) of this section. The Commissioner of Labor shall from time to time requisition from the Unemployment Trust Fund such amounts of money, not exceeding the amounts standing to the account of the Virgin Islands, as he deems necessary for the payment of such benefits for a reasonable future period. Upon receipt thereof, such money shall be deposited in the benefit account.

    • (2) Any balance of money requisitioned from the Unemployment Trust Fund which remains in the benefit account after the expiration of the period for which it was requisitioned shall be deducted from estimates for, and utilized in the payment of, benefits during succeeding periods, or, in the discretion of the Commissioner of Labor shall be redeposited with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America to the credit of the account of the Virgin Islands in the Unemployment Trust Fund.

• [Unemployment Trust Fund]

  • (f)

    • (1) Money credited to the Virgin Islands' account in the Unemployment Trust Fund by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America pursuant to Section 903 of the Social Security Act may not be requisitioned from that account or used except for the payment of benefits and for the payment of expenses incurred for the administration of this chapter. Such money may be requisitioned pursuant to section 310(e) for the payment of benefits. Such money may also be requisitioned and used for the payment of expenses incurred for the administration of this chapter and chapter 7 (the chapter relating to Public Employment Service) of this title but only pursuant to a specific appropriation by the Legislature and only if the expenses are incurred and the money is requisitioned after the enactment of an appropriation law which:

      • (A) Specifies the purpose or purposes for which such money is appropriated and the amount(s) appropriated therefor;

      • (B) Limits the period within which such money may be obligated to a period ending not more than 2 years after the date of the enactment of the appropriation law; and

      • (C) Limits the amount which may be obligated during any 12-month period beginning on July 1 and ending on the next June 30 to an amount which does not exceed the amount by which (i) the aggregate of the amounts credited to the Virgin Islands' account pursuant to Section 903 of the Social Security Act during the same 12-month period and the twenty-four preceding 12-month periods, exceeds (ii) the aggregate of the amounts obligated for administration and paid out for benefits and charged against the amounts credited to the Virgin Islands' account during such twenty-five 12-month periods.

    • (2) Amounts credited to the Virgin Islands' account in the Unemployment Trust Fund under Section 903 of the Social Security Act which are obligated for administration or paid out for benefits shall be charged against equivalent amounts which were first credited and which are not already so charged; except that no amount obligated for administration during a 12-month period specified herein may be charged against any amount credited during such a 12-month period earlier than the twenty-fourth month preceding such period.

    • (3) Money appropriated as provided herein for the payment of expenses of administration shall be requisitioned as needed for the payment of obligations incurred under such appropriation and, upon requisition shall be deposited in the Employment Security Administration Fund from which such payments shall be made. Money so deposited shall, until expended, remain a part of the Unemployment Fund and, if it will not be expended, shall be returned promptly to the Virgin Islands' account in the Unemployment Trust Fund.

• [Continuation of provisions]

  • (g) The provisions of subsections (a) through (f) of this section shall be operative only so long as such Unemployment Trust Fund continues to exist and so long as the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America continues to maintain for the Virgin Islands a separate book account of all funds deposited therein by the Government of the Virgin Islands, together with the proportionate share of the Virgin Islands of the earnings of such Unemployment Trust Fund, from which Fund no other State is permitted to make withdrawals. If and when such Unemployment Trust Fund ceases to exist, or such separate book account is no longer maintained, all money belonging to the Unemployment Fund of the Virgin Islands shall be administered by the Commissioner of Labor as a trust fund exclusively for the purposes of this chapter, and the Commissioner of Labor shall have authority to hold, invest, transfer, sell, deposit and release such money, and any properties, securities, or earnings acquired as an incident to such administration. Such money shall be invested in bonds or other interest bearing obligations of the United States of America or of the Virgin Islands so that all the assets of the Unemployment Fund shall always be readily convertible into cash when needed for the payment of benefits.

• [Payments authorized for credit]

  • (h) The Commissioner of Labor is authorized and directed to pay over, to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States for credit to the Virgin Islands' account in the Unemployment Trust Fund, an amount equal to the excess of (A) the aggregate of the moneys received before said payment in the Virgin Islands Unemployment Insurance Subfund, including interest on any such moneys that have been invested, over (B) the aggregate of the moneys paid from such Fund before said payment to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States as unemployment compensation or as refunds of contributions erroneously paid. The provisions of this subsection shall become effective on the day after the date the Secretary of Labor of the United States approves the Virgin Islands Unemployment Insurance Act under section 3304(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.