Title 20—Employees' Benefits--Volume 1
PART 604—REGULATIONS FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
§ 604.1   Purpose and scope.
The purpose of this Part is to implement the requirements of Federal UC law that limit a State's payment of UC to individuals who are able to work and available for work. This regulation applies to all State UC laws and programs.
§ 604.2   Definitions.
(a) Department means the United States Department of Labor.
(b) FUTA means the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, 26 U.S.C. 3301 et seq.
(c) Social Security Act means the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 501 et seq.
(d) State means a State of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.
(e) State UC agency means the agency of the State charged with the administration of the State's UC law.
(f) State UC law means the law of a State approved under Section 3304(a), FUTA (26 U.S.C. 3304(a)).
(g) Unemployment Compensation (UC) means cash benefits payable to individuals with respect to their unemployment.
(h) Week of unemployment means a week of total, part-total or partial unemployment as defined in the State's UC law.
§ 604.3   Able and available requirement—general principles.
(a) A State may pay UC only to an individual who is able to work and available for work for the week for which UC is claimed.
(b) Whether an individual is able to work and available for work under paragraph (a) of this section must be tested by determining whether the individual is offering services for which a labor market exists. This requirement does not mean that job vacancies must exist, only that, at a minimum, the type of services the individual is able and available to perform is generally performed in the labor market. The State must determine the geographical scope of the labor market for an individual under its UC law.
(c) The requirement that an individual be able to work and available for work applies only to the week of unemployment for which UC is claimed. It does not apply to the reasons for the individual's separation from employment, although the separation may indicate the individual was not able to work or available for work during the week the separation occurred. This Part does not address the authority of States to impose disqualifications with respect to separations. This Part does not limit the States' ability to impose additional able and available requirements that are consistent with applicable Federal laws.
§ 604.4   Application—ability to work.
(a) A State may consider an individual to be able to work during the week of unemployment claimed if the individual is able to work for all or a portion of the week claimed, provided any limitation on his or her ability to work does not constitute a withdrawal from the labor market.
(b) If an individual has previously demonstrated his or her ability to work and availability for work following the most recent separation from employment, the State may consider the individual able to work during the week of unemployment claimed despite the individual's illness or injury, unless the individual has refused an offer of suitable work due to such illness or injury.
§ 604.5   Application—availability for work.
(a) General application. A State may consider an individual to be available for work during the week of unemployment claimed under any of the following circumstances:
(1) The individual is available for any work for all or a portion of the week claimed, provided that any limitation placed by the individual on his or her availability does not constitute a withdrawal from the labor market.
(2) The individual limits his or her availability to work which is suitable for such individual as determined under the State UC law, provided the State law definition of suitable work does not permit the individual to limit his or her availability in such a way that the individual has withdrawn from the labor market. In determining whether the work is suitable, States may, among other factors, take into consideration the education and training of the individual, the commuting distance from the individual's home to the job, the previous work history of the individual (including salary and fringe benefits), and how long the individual has been unemployed.
(3) The individual is on temporary lay-off and is available to work only for the employer that has temporarily laid-off the individual.
(b) Jury service. If an individual has previously demonstrated his or her availability for work following the most recent separation from employment and is appearing for duty before any court under a lawfully issued summons during the week of unemployment claimed, a State may consider the individual to be available for work. For such an individual, attendance at jury duty may be taken as evidence of continued availability for work. However, if the individual does not appear as required by the summons, the State must determine if the reason for non-attendance indicates that the individual is not able to work or is not available for work.
(c) Approved training. A State must not deny UC to an individual for failure to be available for work during a week if, during such week, the individual is in training with the approval of the State agency. However, if the individual fails to attend or otherwise participate in such training, the State must determine if the reason for non-attendance or non-participation indicates that the individual is not able to work or is not available for work.
(d) Self-employment assistance. A State must not deny UC to an individual for failure to be available for work during a week if, during such week, the individual is participating in a self-employment assistance program and meets all the eligibility requirements of such self-employment assistance program.
(e) Short-time compensation. A State must not deny UC to an individual participating in a short-time compensation (also known as worksharing) program under State UC law for failure to be available for work during a week, but such individual will be required to be available for his or her normal workweek.
(f) Alien status. To be considered available for work in the United States for a week, the alien must be legally authorized to work that week in the United States by the appropriate agency of the United States government. In determining whether an alien is legally authorized to work in the United States, the State must follow the requirements of section 1137(d) of the SSA (42 U.S.C. 1320b-7(d)), which relate to verification of and determination of an alien's status.
(g) Relation to ability to work requirement. A State may consider an individual available for work if the State finds the individual able to work under § 604.4(b) despite illness or injury.
(h) Work search. The requirement that an individual be available for work does not require an active work search on the part of the individual. States may, however, require an individual to be actively seeking work to be considered available for work, or States may impose a separate requirement that the individual must actively seek work.
§ 604.6   Conformity and substantial compliance.
(a) In general. A State's UC law must conform with, and the administration of its law must substantially comply with, the requirements of this regulation for purposes of certification under:
(1) Section 3304(c) of the FUTA (26 U.S.C. 3304(c)), with respect to whether employers are eligible to receive credit against the Federal unemployment tax established by section 3301 of the FUTA (26 U.S.C. 3301), and
(2) Section 302 of the SSA (42 U.S.C. 502), with respect to whether a State is eligible to receive Federal grants for the administration of its UC program.
(b) Resolving Issues of Conformity and Substantial Compliance. For the purposes of resolving issues of conformity and substantial compliance with the requirements of this regulation, the following provisions of 20 CFR 601.5 apply:
(1) Paragraph (b) of this section, pertaining to informal discussions with the Department of Labor to resolve conformity and substantial compliance issues, and
(2) Paragraph (d) of this section, pertaining to the Secretary of Labor's hearing and decision on conformity and substantial compliance.
(c) Result of failure to conform or substantially comply —(1) FUTA requirements. Whenever the Secretary of Labor, after reasonable notice and opportunity for a hearing to the State UC agency, finds that the State UC law fails to conform, or that the State or State UC agency fails to comply substantially, with the requirements of the FUTA, as implemented in this regulation, then the Secretary of Labor shall make no certification under such act to the Secretary of the Treasury for such State as of October 31 of the 12-month period for which such finding is made. Further, the Secretary of Labor must notify the Governor of the State and such State UC agency that further payments for the administration of the State UC law will not be made to the State.
(2) SSA requirements. Whenever the Secretary of Labor, after reasonable notice and opportunity for a hearing to the State UC agency, finds that the State UC law fails to conform, or that the State or State UC agency fails to comply substantially, with the requirements of title III, SSA (42 U.S.C. 501-504), as implemented in this regulation, then the Secretary of Labor must notify the Governor of the State and such State UC agency that further payments for the administration of the State UC law will not be made to the State until the Secretary of Labor is satisfied that there is no longer any such failure. Until the Secretary of Labor is so satisfied, the Department of Labor will not make further payments to such State.