An Act Increasing Unemployment Compensation Dependency ...

General Assembly	File No. 298
January Session, 1999	Senate Bill No. 1148

Senate, April 19, 1999

The Committee on Labor and Public Employees reported through SEN. PRAGUE of the 19th Dist., Chairperson of the Committee on the part of the Senate, that the bill ought to pass.

An Act Increasing Unemployment Compensation Dependency Allowances.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 31-234 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof:

Each individual who is eligible to receive benefits for unemployment with respect to any week shall be paid with respect to such week a dependency allowance of [ten] fifteen dollars for such individual's nonworking spouse, as defined by regulation, living in the same household with such individual and for each of such individual's children or stepchildren who at the beginning of the individual's current benefit year were being wholly or mainly supported by such individual and were under eighteen years of age or under twenty-one years of age and in full-time attendance in a secondary school, a technical school, a college, or state accredited job training program, or who at the beginning of the individual's benefit year were mentally or physically handicapped and because of such handicap were being wholly or mainly supported by such individual, but in no event shall such allowances [exceed the number of whole dollars in fifty per cent of the total unemployment benefit rate of such individual or] be paid with respect to more than five dependents. If the individual acquires any additional dependents in the course of a benefit year, the dependency allowance shall be adjusted accordingly during the next following complete calendar week. Dependency allowances shall be in addition to the unemployment benefits otherwise payable and shall not be considered part of an individual's total unemployment benefit rate but shall be counted in the amount of maximum benefits provided in section 31-232a and no dependency allowance shall be payable with respect to any week unless an unemployment benefit is also payable with respect to such week. If both a husband and a wife receive benefits with respect to a week of unemployment, neither shall be entitled to a dependency allowance with respect to the other and only one of them shall be entitled to a dependency allowance with respect to any child or stepchild.

LAB

Committee Vote:

Yea

14

Nay

0

JF

The following fiscal impact statement and bill analysis are prepared for the benefit of members of the General Assembly, solely for the purpose of information, summarization, and explanation, and do not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either House thereof for any purpose:

OFA Fiscal Note

State Impact:	Cost, (Unemployment Compensation Fund and General Fund)
Affected Agencies:	Department of Labor
Municipal Impact:	Cost

Explanation

State Impact:

The bill increases the unemployment compensation dependency allowance from ten to fifteen dollars per week per dependent. It also eliminates the cap that limits dependency allowances to one-half of the claimant's weekly benefit rate.

There will be a cost to state's unemployment compensation fund associated with the increase in dependent allowance from $10 a week to $15 a week and the elimination of the 50% dependency allowance cap. The cost will be an additional $3.5 million in dependency allowances annually. The state as an employer will have an unemployment contribution cost of approximately $35, 700 annually associated with the changes specified by the bill.

Municipal Impact:

There will be a cost to municipalities associated with the increase in the weekly dependency allowance and the elimination of the 50% weekly benefit rate cap on dependency allowances. The cost to municipalities in unemployment contributions will be $53, 550.

OLR Bill Analysis

SB 1148

An Act Increasing Unemployment Compensation Dependency Allowances

SUMMARY: This bill increases, from $10 to $15, the weekly allowance an unemployment compensation claimant may receive for each dependent. It eliminates the dependency allowance cap of 50% of the claimant's total weekly benefit rate but retains the five-dependent limit, making the maximum allowance $75 per week.

By law, dependents include the claimant's nonworking spouse who lives with him and children (including stepchildren) he supports. Dependency benefits count toward the maximum unemployment compensation benefit, which is currently $376.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 1999

COMMITTEE ACTION

Labor and Public Employees Committee

Joint Favorable Report

Yea

14

Nay

0

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