Opinion ID: 1805303
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Unemployment Compensation Law.

Text: Iowa Code section 96.4 provides in relevant part: An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive benefits with respect to any week only if the division of job service finds that: .... 3. The individual is able to work, is available for work, and is earnestly and actively seeking work. Iowa Code § 96.4(3). An ability to work is the first of three prerequisite findings that must be made in order for an individual to be eligible for unemployment benefits. Id. To be found able to work, [a]n individual must be physically and mentally able to work in some gainful employment, not necessarily in the individual's customary occupation, but which is engaged in by others as a means of livelihood. Geiken v. Lutheran Home for the Aged Ass'n, 468 N.W.2d 223, 225-26 (Iowa 1991); see also Iowa Admin.Code r. 345-4.22(1)(b) (1988) ([T]he individual must be physically able to work, not necessarily in the individual's customary occupation, but able to work in some reasonably suitable, comparable, gainful, full-time endeavor, other than self-employment, which is generally available in the labor market in which the individual resides.).