West Virginia Legislature enacts higher standard for unemployment recipients

If you’ve seen an uptick in job applications, you might have the West Virginia Legislature to thank for some much-needed updates to unemployment compensation eligibility. However, you may also have more obligations as a hiring manager if an applicant is receiving benefits.

Intent of unemployment benefits

Since the mid-1970s, unemployment compensation benefits have been available in West Virginia to individuals who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. West Virginia’s Unemployment Compensation Law, W. Va. Code § 21A-6-1, was intended to:

provide a measure of security to the families of unemployed persons, guard against the menace to health, morals and welfare arising from unemployment, maintain as great purchasing power as possible, with a view to sustaining the economic system during periods of economic depression, stimulate stability of employment as a requisite of social and economic security, and allay and prevent the debilitating consequences of poor relief assistance.

However, many of the state’s employers would likely argue that, instead, unemployment compensation has propelled joblessness rather than prevented it.