§ 1359 — Administration of Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund

(a) The Fund shall be administered in trust and used solely to pay benefits and refunds upon vouchers drawn on the Fund by the Commissioner pursuant to this chapter and to such rules as the Board is authorized to adopt, except that money credited to this State’s account under 42 U.S.C. § 1103 shall be used exclusively as provided in subsection (d) of this section.
(b) There shall be maintained within the Fund three separate fund accounts:
(1) a clearing account;
(2) an Unemployment Trust Fund account; and
(3) a benefit account.
(c) All monies payable to the Fund shall be immediately deposited in the clearing account upon receipt, and, after clearance shall, except that the monies may be expended for the payment of refunds under this chapter, be deposited immediately with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to the credit of the Unemployment Trust Fund account of the State of Vermont in the Unemployment Trust Fund established and maintained pursuant to the Social Security Act, as amended. The Commissioner shall requisition from the Vermont Unemployment Trust Fund account amounts that are necessary for and to be used solely in the payment of benefits and refunds under this chapter. The requisitioned sums shall be deposited in the benefit account. Any monies so withdrawn shall not be used for expenses of administration or any purpose other than the payment of benefits and refunds under this chapter. Requirements with respect to specific appropriation or other formal release by State officers of monies belonging to the State shall not be applicable to withdrawals from the Fund.
(d) Money credited to the account of this State in the Unemployment Trust Fund by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury:
(1) May not be requisitioned from this State’s account or used except for the payment of benefits and for the payment of expenses incurred for the administration of this chapter. The money may be requisitioned under subsection (a) of this section for the payment of benefits. That money may also be requisitioned and used for the payment of expenses incurred for the administration of this chapter but only under a specific appropriation by the General Assembly and only if the expenses are incurred and the money is requisitioned after the enactment of an appropriation law that:
(A) specifies the purpose for which the money is appropriated and the amount appropriated for that purpose;
(B) limits the period within which the money may be obligated to a period ending not more than two years after the date of the enactment of the appropriation law; and
(C) limits the amount that may be obligated during any 12-month period beginning on July 1 and ending on the next June 30 to an amount that does not exceed the amount by which:
(i) the aggregate of the amounts credited to the account of this State under 42 U.S.C. § 1103 during the same 12-month period and the 14 preceding 12-month periods, exceeds;
(ii) the aggregate of the amount obligated for administration and paid out for benefits and charged against the amounts credited to the account of this State during those 15 12-month periods.
(2) That is obligated for administration or paid out for benefits shall be charged against equivalent amounts that were first credited and that are not already so charged; except that no amount obligated for administration during a 12-month period specified in this section may be charged against any amount credited during such a 12-month period earlier than the 14th preceding such period. Amounts credited to this State’s account in the Unemployment Trust Fund under 42 U.S.C. § 1103 that have been appropriated for expenses of administration shall be excluded from the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund balance for the purposes of section 1326 of this title.
(e) Money appropriated as provided in this section for the payment of expenses of administration shall be requisitioned as needed for the payment of obligations incurred under the appropriation and, upon requisition, shall be deposited in the Unemployment Compensation Administration Fund from which those payments shall be made. Money so deposited shall, until expended, remain a part of the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund and, if it will not be expended, shall be returned promptly to the account of this State in the Unemployment Trust Fund. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 22, eff. March 1, 1961; 1961, No. 210, § 15, eff. July 11, 1961; 1967, No. 190, § 2, eff. April 17, 1967; 1969, No. 77, eff. April 18, 1969; 2015, No. 23, § 120; 2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), § 203, eff. July 1, 2024.)