Title 20—Employees' Benefits--Volume 1
PART 616—INTERSTATE ARRANGEMENT FOR COMBINING EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES
§ 616.1   Purpose of arrangement.
This arrangement is approved by the Secretary under the provisions of section 3304(a)(9)(B) of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act to establish a system whereby an unemployed worker with covered employment or wages in more than one State may combine all such employment and wages in one State, in order to qualify for benefits or to receive more benefits.
§ 616.2   Consultation with the State agencies.
As required by section 3304(a)(9)(B), this arrangement has been developed in consultation with the State unemployment compensation agencies. For purposes of such consultation in its formulation and any future amendment the Secretary recognizes, as agents of the State agencies, the duly designated representatives of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA).
§ 616.3   Interstate cooperation.
Each State agency will cooperate with every other State agency by implementing such rules, regulations, and procedures as may be prescribed for the operation of this arrangement. Each State agency shall identify the paying and the transferring State with respect to Combined-Wage Claims filed in its State.
§ 616.4   Rules, regulations, procedures, forms—resolution of disagreements.
All State agencies shall operate in accordance with such rules, regulations, and procedures, and shall use such forms, as shall be prescribed by the Secretary in consultation with the State unemployment compensation agencies. All rules, regulations, and standards prescribed by the Secretary with respect to intrastate claims will apply to claims filed under this arrangement unless they are clearly inconsistent with the arrangement. The Secretary shall resolve any disagreement between State agencies concerning the operation of the arrangement, with the advice of the duly designated representatives of the State agencies.
§ 616.6   Definitions.
These definitions apply for the purpose of this arrangement and the procedures issued to effectuate it.
(a) State. “State” includes the States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
(b) State agency. The agency which administers the unemployment compensation law of a State.
(c) Combined-Wage Claim. A claim filed under this arrangement.
(d) Combined-Wage Claimant. A claimant who has covered wages under the unemployment compensation law of more than one State and who has filed a claim under this arrangement.
(e) Paying State. A single State against which the claimant files a Combined-Wage Claim, if the claimant has wages and employment in that State's base period(s) and the claimant qualifies for unemployment benefits under the unemployment compensation law of that State using combined wages and employment.
(f) Transferring State. A State in which a Combined-Wage Claimant had covered employment and wages in the base period of a paying State, and which transfers such employment and wages to the paying State for its use in determining the benefit rights of such claimant under its law.
(g) Employment and wages. “Employment” refers to all services which are covered under the unemployment compensation law of a State, whether expressed in terms of weeks of work or otherwise. “Wages” refers to all remuneration for such employment.
(h) Secretary. The Secretary of Labor of the United States.
(i) Base period and benefit year. The base period and benefit year applicable under the unemployment compensation law of the paying State.
§ 616.7   Election to file a Combined-Wage Claim.
(a) Any unemployed individual who has had employment covered under the unemployment compensation law of two or more States, whether or not the individual is monetarily qualified under one or more of them, may elect to file a Combined-Wage Claim. The individual may not so elect, however, if the individual has established a benefit year under any State or Federal unemployment compensation law and:
(1) The benefit year has not ended, and
(2) The individual still has unused benefit rights based on such benefit year. 1
1 The Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970, title II, Public Law 91-373, section 202(a)(1), limits the payment of extended benefits with respect to any week to individuals who have no rights to regular compensation with respect to such week under any State unemployment compensation law or to compensation under any other Federal law and in certain other instances. This provision precludes any individual from receiving any Federal-State extended benefits with respect to any week for which the individual is eligible to receive regular benefits based on a Combined Wage Claim. (See section 5752, part V of the Employment Security Manual.)
(b) For the purposes of this arrangement, a claimant will not be considered to have unused benefit rights based on a benefit year which the claimant has established under a State or Federal unemployment compensation law if:
(1) The claimant has exhausted his/her rights to all benefits based on such benefit year; or
(2) The claimant's rights to such benefits have been postponed for an indefinite period or for the entire period in which benefits would otherwise be payable; or
(3) Benefits are affected by the application of a seasonal restriction.
(c) If an individual elects to file a Combined-Wage Claim, all employment and wages in all States in which the individual worked during the base period of the paying State must be included in such combining, except employment and wages which are not transferrable under the provisions of § 616.9(b).
(d) A Combined-Wage Claimant may withdraw his/her Combined-Wage Claim within the period prescribed by the law of the paying State for filing an appeal, protest, or request for redetermination (as the case may be) from the monetary determination of the Combined-Wage Claim, provided the claimant either:
(1) Repays in full any benefits paid to him thereunder, or
(2) Authorizes the State(s) against which the claimant files a substitute claim(s) for benefits to withhold and forward to the paying State a sum sufficient to repay such benefits.
(e) If the Combined-Wage Claimant files his/her claim in a State other than the paying State, the claimant shall do so pursuant to the Interstate Benefit Payment Plan.
(f) If a State denies a Combined-Wage Claim, it must inform the claimant of the option to file in another State in which the claimant has wages and employment during that State's base period(s).
§ 616.8   Responsibilities of the paying State.
(a) Transfer of employment and wages—payment of benefits. The paying State shall request the transfer of a Combined-Wage Claimant's employment and wages in all States during its base period, and shall determine the claimant's entitlement to benefits (including additional benefits, extended benefits and dependents' allowances when applicable) under the provisions of its law based on employment and wages in the paying State, and all such employment and wages transferred to it hereunder. The paying State shall apply all the provisions of its law to each determination made hereunder, except that the paying State may not determine an issue which has previously been adjudicated by a transferring State. Such exception shall not apply, however, if the transferring State's determination of the issue resulted in making the Combined-Wage Claim possible under § 616.7(b)(2). If the paying State fails to establish a benefit year for the Combined-Wage Claimant, or if the claimant withdraws his/her claim as provided herein, it shall return to each transferring State all employment and wages thus unused.
(b) Notices of determination. The paying State shall give to the claimant a notice of each of its determinations on his/her Combined-Wage Claim that he/she is required to receive under the Secretary's Claim Determinations Standard and the contents of such notice shall meet such Standard. When the claimant is filing his/her Combined-Wage Claims in a State other than the paying State, the paying State shall send a copy of each such notice to the local office in which the claimant filed such claims.
(c) Redeterminations. (1) Redeterminations may be made by the paying State in accordance with its law based on additional or corrected information received from any source, including a transferring State, except that such information shall not be used as a basis for changing the paying State if benefits have been paid under the Combined-Wage Claim.
(2) When a determination is made, as provided in paragraph (a) of this section, which suspends the use of wages earned in employment with an educational institution during a prescribed period between successive academic years or terms or other periods as prescribed in the law of the paying State in accordance with section 3304(a)(6)(A)(i)-(iv) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the paying State shall furnish each transferring State involved in the combined-Wage Claim an adjusted determination used to recompute each State's proportionate share of any charges that may accumulate for benefits paid during the period of suspended use of school wages. Wages which are suspended shall be retained by the paying State for possible future reinstatement to the Combined-Wage Claim and shall not be returned to the transferring State.
(d) Appeals. (1) Except as provided in paragraph (d)(3) of this section, where the claimant files his/her Combined-Wage Claim in the paying State, any protest, request for redetermination or appeal shall be in accordance with the law of such State.
(2) Where the claimant files his/her Combined-Wage Claim in a State other than the paying State, or under the circumstances described in paragraph (d)(3) of this section, any protest, request for redetermination or appeal shall be in accordance with the Interstate Benefit Payment Plan.
(3) To the extent that any protest, request for redetermination or appeal involves a dispute as to the coverage of the employing unit or services in a transferring State, or otherwise involves the amount of employment and wages subject to transfer, the protest, request for redetermination or appeal shall be decided by the transferring State in accordance with its law.
(e) Recovery of prior overpayments. If there is an overpayment outstanding in a transferring State and such transferring State so requests, the overpayment shall be deducted from any benefits the paying State would otherwise pay to the claimant on his/her Combined-Wage Claim except to the extent prohibited by the law of the paying State. The paying State shall transmit the amount deducted to the transferring State or credit the deduction against the transferring State's required reimbursement under this arrangement. This paragraph shall apply to overpayments only if the transferring State certifies to the paying State that the determination of overpayment was made within 3 years before the Combined-Wage Claim was filed and that repayment by the claimant is legally required and enforceable against him/her under the law of the transferring State.
(f) Statement of benefit charges. (1) At the close of each calendar quarter, the paying State shall send each transferring State a statement of benefits charged during such quarter to such State as to each Combined-Wage Claimant.
(2) Except as provided in paragraphs (c)(2), (f)(3), and (f)(5) of this section, each such charge shall bear the same ratio to the total benefits paid to the Combined-Wage Claimant by the paying State as the claimant's wages transferred by the transferring State bear to the total wages used in such determination. Each such ratio shall be computed as a percentage, to three or more decimal places.
(3) Charges to the transferring State shall not include the costs of any benefits paid which are funded or reimbursed from the Federal Unemployment Benefits and Allowances account in the U.S. Department of Labor appropriation, including:
(i) Benefits paid pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 8501-8525; and
(ii) Benefits which are reimbursable under part B of title II of the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-567).
(4) Except as provided in paragraphs (f)(3) and (f)(5) of this section, all transferring States will be charged by the paying State for Extended Benefits in the same manner as for regular benefits.
(5) The United States shall be charged directly by the paying State, in the same manner as is provided in paragraphs (f)(1) and (f)(2) of this section, in regard to Federal civilian service and wages and Federal military service and wages assigned or transferred to the paying State and included in Combined-Wage Claims in accordance with this part and parts 609 and 614 of this chapter.
§ 616.9   Responsibilities of transferring States.
(a) Transfer of employment and wages. Each transferring State shall promptly transfer to the Paying State the employment and wages the Combined-Wage Claimant had in covered employment during the base period of the paying State. Any employment and wages so transferred shall be transferred without restriction as to their use for determination and benefit payments under the provisions of the paying State's law.
(b) Employment and wages not transferable. Employment and wages transferred to the paying State by a transferring State shall not include:
(1) Any employment and wages which have been transferred to any other paying State and not returned unused, or which have been used in the transferring State as the basis of a monetary determination which established a benefit year.
(2) Any employment and wages which have been canceled or are otherwise unavailable to the claimant as a result of a determination by the transferring State made prior to its receipt of the request for transfer, if such determination has become final or is in the process of appeal but is still pending. If the appeal is finally decided in favor of the Combined-Wage Claimant, any employment and wages involved in the appeal shall forthwith be transferred to the paying State and any necessary redetermination shall be made by such paying State.
(c) Reimbursement of paying State. Each transferring State shall, as soon as practicable after receipt of a quarterly statement of charges described herein, reimburse the paying State accordingly.
§ 616.10   Reuse of employment and wages.
Employment and wages which have been used under this arrangement for a determination of benefits which establishes a benefit year shall not thereafter be used by any State as the basis for another monetary determination of benefits.
§ 616.11   Amendment of arrangement.
Periodically the Secretary shall review the operation of this arrangement, and shall propose such amendments to the arrangement as the Secretary believes are necessary or appropriate. Any State unemployment compensation agency or NASWA may propose amendments to the arrangement. Any proposal shall constitute an amendment to the arrangement upon approval by the Secretary in consultation with the State unemployment compensation agencies. Any such amendment shall specify when the change shall take effect, and to which claims it shall apply.