Connecticut General Statutes 31-230 – Benefit year, base period and alternative base period
(a) An individual’s benefit year shall commence with the beginning of the week with respect to which the individual has filed a valid initiating claim and shall continue through the Saturday of the fifty-first week following the week in which it commenced, provided no benefit year shall end until after the end of the third complete calendar quarter, plus the remainder of any uncompleted calendar week that began in such quarter, following the calendar quarter in which it commenced, and provided further, the benefit year of an individual who has filed a combined wage claim, as described in subsection (b) of § 31-255, shall be the benefit year prescribed by the law of the paying state. In no event shall a benefit year be established before the termination of an existing benefit year previously established under the provisions of this chapter. Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the base period of a benefit year shall be the first four of the five most recently completed calendar quarters prior to such benefit year, provided such quarters were not previously used to establish a prior valid benefit year and provided further, the base period with respect to a combined wage claim, as described in subsection (b) of § 31-255, shall be the base period of the paying state, except that for any individual who is eligible to receive or is receiving workers’ compensation or who is properly absent from work under the terms of the employer’s sick leave or disability leave policy, the base period shall be the four consecutive quarters immediately preceding the most recently worked quarter prior to such benefit year, provided such quarters were not previously used to establish a prior valid benefit year and provided further, the last most recently worked calendar quarter is no more than twelve calendar quarters prior to the date such individual makes an initiating claim. As used in this section, an initiating claim shall be deemed valid if the individual is unemployed and meets the requirements of subdivisions (1) and (3) of subsection (a) of § 31-235. The base period of an individual’s benefit year shall include wages paid by any nonprofit organization electing reimbursement in lieu of contributions, or by the state and by any town, city or other political or governmental subdivision of or in this state or of any municipality to such person with respect to whom such employer is subject to the provisions of this chapter. With respect to weeks of unemployment beginning on or after January 1, 1978, wages for insured work shall include wages paid for previously uncovered services. For purposes of this section, the term “previously uncovered services” means services that (1) were not employment, as defined in § 31-222, and were not services covered pursuant to § 31-223, at any time during the one-year period ending December 31, 1975; and (2) (A) are agricultural labor, as defined in subparagraph (H) of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of § 31-222, or domestic service, as defined in subparagraph (J) of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of § 31-222, or (B) are services performed by an employee of this state or a political subdivision of this state, as provided in subparagraph (C) of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of § 31-222, or by an employee of a nonprofit educational institution that is not an institution of higher education, as provided in subparagraph (E)(iii) of subdivision (1) of subsection (a) of § 31-222, except to the extent that assistance under Title II of the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974 was paid on the basis of such services.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 31-230
- Administrator: means the Labor Commissioner. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- agricultural labor: means any service performed prior to January 1, 1978, which was agricultural labor prior to such date, and remunerated service performed after December 31, 1977: (I) On a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, bees, poultry and fur-bearing animals and wildlife. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- Calendar quarters: means the quarter years ending on the last day of March, June, September and December, respectively, or the equivalent thereof as the administrator may by regulation prescribe. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- domestic service: includes all service for a person in the operation and maintenance of a private household, local college club or local chapter of a college fraternity or sorority as distinguished from service as an employee in the pursuit of an employer's trade, occupation, profession, enterprise or vocation. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- employment: shall include services described in clause (I) and (II) above performed after December 31, 1971, if 1. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- Institution of higher education: means an educational institution which (1) admits as regular students only individuals having a certificate of graduation from a high school, or the recognized equivalent of such a certificate. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- State: means any state of the United States and shall include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on the day after the day on which the Secretary of Labor accepts an unemployment insurance law submitted by the Virgin Islands. See Connecticut General Statutes 31-222
(b) The base period of a benefit year for any individual who is ineligible to receive benefits using the base period set forth in subsection (a) of this section shall be the four most recently completed calendar quarters prior to the individual’s benefit year, provided such quarters were not previously used to establish a prior valid benefit year, except that for any such individual who is eligible to receive or is receiving workers’ compensation or who is properly absent from work under the terms of an employer’s sick leave or disability leave policy, the base period shall be the four consecutive quarters immediately preceding the most recently worked quarter prior to such benefit year, provided such quarters were not previously used to establish a prior valid benefit year and provided further, the last most recently worked calendar quarter is not more than twelve calendar quarters prior to the date such individual makes the initiating claim. If the wage information for an individual’s most recently worked calendar quarter is unavailable to the administrator from regular quarterly reports of systematically accessible wage information, the administrator shall promptly contact the individual’s employer to obtain such wage information.