Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 3, March 22, 2024
A. The
following regulations shall govern the Department of Employment and Workforce,
in its administrative cooperation with other States adopting a similar
regulation for the payment of benefits to interstate claimants.
1. Definitions, as used in this regulation,
unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
a. "Interstate Benefit Payment Plan" means
the plan approved by the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies
under which benefits shall be payable to unemployed individuals absent from the
State (or States) in which benefit credits have been accumulated.
b. "Interstate claimant" means an individual
who claims benefits under the unemployment insurance law of one or more liable
States in which claimant is not residing. The term "interstate claimant" shall
not include an individual who customarily commutes from a residence in an agent
state to work in a liable state unless the Department finds that this exclusion
would create undue hardship on such claimants in specified areas.
c. "State" includes the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
d. "Agent state" means any state in which an
individual files a claim for benefits from another state.
e. "Liable state" means any state against
which an individual files, through another state or by other means as provided
by the liable state, a claim for benefits.
f. "Benefits" means the compensation payable
to an individual, with respect to his unemployment, under the unemployment
insurance law of any state.
g.
"Week of unemployment" includes any week of unemployment as defined in the law
of the liable state from which benefits with respect to such week are
claimed.
B.
Registration for Work:
1. Each interstate
claimant shall be registered for work, through any public employment office in
the agent state when and as required by the law, regulations, and procedures of
the agent state. Such registration shall be accepted as meeting the
registration requirements of the liable state.
2. Each agent state shall duly report, to the
liable state in question, whether each interstate claimant meets the
registration requirements of the agent state.
C. Benefit Rights of Interstate Claimants:
1. If a claimant files a claim against any
state, and it is determined by such state that the claimant has available
benefit credits in such state, then claims shall be filed only against such
state as long as benefit credits are available in that state. Thereafter, the
claimant may file claims against any other state in which there are available
benefit credits. For the purpose of this regulation, benefit credits shall be
deemed to be unavailable whenever benefits have been exhausted, terminated, or
postponed for an indefinite period or for the entire period in which benefits
would otherwise be payable, or whenever benefits are affected by the
application of a seasonal restriction.
2. The benefit rights of interstate claimants
established by this regulation shall apply only with respect to new claims
(notices of unemployment) filed.
D. Claim for Benefits:
1. When it is determined by the Agent state
that a South Carolina Interstate claim is in order, the initial claim for
benefits shall be filed by interstate claimants via the Remote Interstate
Claims Unit. The Agent state shall provide to the claimant the telephone number
or filing procedures as defined in the online Interstate Handbook. When acting
as the Agent state, the Department shall take Interstate claims on uniform
interstate claim forms and in accordance with uniform procedures developed
pursuant to the Interstate Benefit Payment Plan or refer to the appropriate
liable state as described in the on-line Interstate Handbook. Claims shall be
filed in accordance with the type of week in use in the liable state.
2. South Carolina Continued Claims shall be
filed via the Interactive Voice Response System. The Department shall provide a
mail packet to the claimant with the telephone number and/or any other filing
means as provided by the Department.
a. With
respect to claims for weeks of unemployment in which an individual was not
working for his regular employer, the liable state shall, under circumstances,
which it considers good cause, accept a continued claim filed up to one week,
or one reporting period, late. If a claimant files more than one reporting
period late, an initial claim must be used to begin a claim series and no
continued claim for a past period shall be accepted.
b. With respect to weeks of unemployment
during which an individual is attached to his regular employer, the liable
state shall accept any claim, which is filed within the time limit applicable
to such claims under the law of the Agent state.
E. Determinations of Claims:
1. The Agent state shall, in connection with
each claim filed by an interstate claimant, ascertain and report to the liable
state in question such facts relating to the claimant's availability for work
and eligibility for benefits as are readily determinable in and by the agent
state.
2. The Agent state's
responsibility and authority in connection with the determination of interstate
claims shall be limited to investigation and reporting of relevant facts. The
Agent state shall not refuse to take an interstate claim.
3. When acting as the liable state, the
Department shall conduct its own investigation as to the eligibility of the
claimant and issue adjudication.
F. Appellate Procedure:
With respect to the time limits imposed by the law of a liable
state upon the filing of an appeal in connection with a disputed benefit claim,
an appeal made by an interstate claimant shall be deemed to have been made and
communicated to the liable state on the date when it is received by any
qualified officer of the Agent state.
G. Extension of Interstate Benefit Payments
to Include Claims Taken In and For Canada. This regulation shall apply in all
its provisions to claims taken in and for Canada.
H. Wage-Combining.
1. The Department subscribes to the
Interstate Plan for Combining Wages (Basic Plan and Extended Plan) in
accordance with Section
41-29-140,
Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, for the administrative cooperation with
other participating states for the payment of combined wage claims to
interstate claimants.
a. The Basic
Wage-Combining Plan is adopted to establish a system whereby an unemployed
worker not eligible for benefits in any one state may, through combining of
wages in more than one participating state, become eligible for
benefits.
b. The Extended
Wage-Combining Plan is adopted to establish a system whereby an unemployed
worker having sufficient base-period wages to qualify for less than maximum
annual unemployment insurance benefits in one or more participating states and
insufficient base-period wages to qualify for benefits in one or more other
participating states, may increase the benefits to which he is entitled by
combining wages in one of the states in which he has sufficient base-period
wages with base-period wages in all states in each of which he has insufficient
wages.
2. The Plan for
Combining Wages shall be administered in accordance with uniform Interstate
Benefit Payment Procedures for combining wages.
I. Termination of Combining Wages:
Combining of wages terminates upon the termination of the
benefit year in the paying state or at such time as re-determination of benefit
rights becomes necessary under the law of the paying state.
J. Relation to Interstate Benefit Payment
Procedures:
Whenever this Plan applies, it shall supersede any inconsistent
provisions of the Interstate Benefit Payment Plan and the Regulations there
under.