[Accessibility
Information]
Related BLS
programs | Related articles
January 1998, Vol. 121, No.
1
Changes in unemployment insurance legislation in 1997
Diana Runner
- I n 1997, Congress
enacted two laws that affect the Nation's unemployment
compensation programthe Balanced Budget Act of 1997
(P.L. 105-33), and the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (P.L.
105-34). At the State level, enactments addressed such
diverse issues as the recoupment of food stamp
overpayments, the withholding of Federal income tax from
benefit payments, and adjustments to minimum and maximum
weekly benefit amounts.
The Balanced Budge Act of 1997:
- Provides that States must authorize that
the wage and claim information that they are required to
disclose to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human
Services for use in the National Directory of New Hires
may be disclosed to the U.S. Department of the Treasury,
the Social Security Administration, and State Child
Support Enforcement Agencies;
- Provides that an individual's base period
is a matter of each State to determine, and is not
subject to Federal jurisdiction. This means that States
will have complete authority in setting base periods for
determining eligibility for benefits. This change came
about as the result of a case heard before the U.S. Court
of Appeals.
- Effective October 1, 2001, raised the
ceiling or maximum balance in the Federal Unemployment
Account (FUA)1 as of the end of any Federal fiscal year
(September 30) to 0.5 percent (was 0.25 percent) of the
total wages subject to contributions under all State
unemployment compensation laws.
This excerpt is from an article published in
the January 1998 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The
full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable
Document Format (PDF). See How to view
a PDF file for more information.
Read abstract Download full text in PDF (1046K)
Footnotes
1The FUA account is an account in the Unemployment Trust
Fund (UTF) used to provide interest-bearing loans to States whose
benefit accounts in the UTF are exhausted, enabling them to
continue to pay unemployment benefits to eligible unemployed
individuals.
Related BLS programs
BLS does not have any programs that directly relate to the
topic of this article.
- Related Monthly
Labor Review articles
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1990. January 1991.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1991. January 1992.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1992. January 1993.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1993. January 1994.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1994. January 1995.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1995. January 1996.
-
- Changes in State unemployment insurance
legislation in 1996. January 1997.
Within Monthly Labor Review Online:
Welcome | Current
Issue | Index | Subscribe | Archives
Exit Monthly Labor Review Online:
BLS Home | Publications & Research Papers