Housekeeping changes

A handful of policy changes are included in a new law that makes housekeeping and federal conforming changes relating to the state’s unemployment insurance system.

Rep. Bob Gunther (R-Fairmont) and Sen. John Pederson (R-St. Cloud) sponsor the law, which represents the work of the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee. The bipartisan group works under the umbrella of the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Policy changes in the law include:

• requiring that penalties and interest payments be deposited in the UI trust fund rather than the administration account (effective July 1, 2013);

• clarifying when the tax rate for “new employers” applies (effective July 1, 2012);

• reducing from 55 percent to 50 percent the amount of weekly employment earnings that can be deducted from an applicant’s weekly benefit amount in cases where their earnings are less than their benefits (effective July 1, 2013);

• providing that overpayment, penalty and interest balances must be canceled after 10 years instead of 15 years (effective July 1, 2012); and

• banning agreements whereby employers agree not to contest payment of benefits in exchange for certain concessions from the employee (effective July 1, 2012).

The federal conforming changes in the law deal with penalties levied against employers who fail to provide requested information on unemployment applicants’ eligibility for benefits, resulting in overpayment of benefits. These changes mostly take effect July 1, 2013.

The law also includes a number of noncontroversial housekeeping provisions that replace obsolete references, clarify statutes and make technical changes. These take effect July 1, 2012.

HF2582/ SF2224*/CH201