Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act

(LATEST SUMMARY)

Special Unemployment Compensation Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to enter into agreements with the States to provide special unemployment compensation payments to qualified individuals in areas where unemployment is high.

Provides that to qualify for the special payments an individual whose employment was covered under the unemployment compensation laws would be required to have exhausted after September 1974 all of his rights to unemployment compensation (both regular and extended) under all State and Federal unemployment compensation laws. Provides that an individual whose employment was not covered under any State or Federal unemployment compensation law qualifies for the special payments if in the year preceding his unemployment he would have qualified for unemployment compensation had all of his work been covered under an unemployment compensation law.

Provides that benefits are payable whenever a special unemployment compensation period existed in the area in which the individual worked. Specifies that an unemployment compensation period begins with the third week after the week for which there was an "on" indicator for the area and ends with the third week after the week for which there is an "off" indicator.

Provides that no special unemployment compensation period would be for less than 13 weeks.

Provides that there would be an "on" indicator in an area if for a running 13-week period the average insured unemployment rate for the area was 4 percent or more and was at least 20 percent higher than the average rate for the corresponding 13-week period beginning October 1, 1972, and ending September 29, 1973, or the average rate of insured employment for the area was 4.5 percent or more.

Provides that there would be an "off" indicator if none of the conditions for an "on" indicator were met for a consecutive 13-week period. States that the area in which the program would be in effect would be an economically integrated geographical unit with a population of at least 250,000 persons and designated as such by the Secretary of Labor.