Extension of benefits

288.501. Extension of benefits — alternate base period defined — use of federal moneys. — Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary:

(1) If a claimant does not have sufficient wages in the base period to be an insured worker, as those terms are defined in section 288.030, the individual's base period shall be the four most recently completed calendar quarters preceding the first day of the individual's benefit year. Such base period shall be known as the "alternate base period". If information as to wages for the most recent quarter of the alternate base period is not available to the deputy from the regular quarterly reports of wage information, which are systematically accessible, the deputy may base the determination of eligibility for benefits on the affidavit of the claimant with respect to wages for that calendar quarter. The claimant shall furnish payroll documentation, where available, in support of the affidavit. The determination based upon the alternate base period as it relates to the claimant's benefit rights shall be amended if the quarterly report of wage information from the employer is timely received and that information causes a change in the determination. No calendar quarter in a base period or alternate base period for a claimant's current benefit year shall be used to establish a subsequent benefit year;

(2) The claimant shall not be disqualified from unemployment compensation for separating from employment if that separation is for any compelling family reason. For the purposes of this section, the term "compelling family reason" shall mean:

(a) The illness or disability of a member of the claimant's immediate family, which shall include the claimant's spouse, parent, or minor child under the age of eighteen;

(b) The need for the claimant to accompany such claimant's spouse to a location from which it is impractical for the claimant to commute and due to a change in location of the spouse's employment;

(c) Domestic violence, verified by reasonable and confidential documentation, which causes the claimant reasonably to believe that the claimant's continued employment would jeopardize the safety of the claimant or of any member of the claimant's family, as defined by the United States Secretary of Labor;

(3) A claimant who has commenced training under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, or director-approved training under section 288.055, and has exhausted the claimant's regular unemployment benefits shall be eligible for additional unemployment benefits, not to exceed twenty-six times the claimant's weekly benefit amount. The weekly benefit amount shall be the same as the claimant's regular weekly benefit amount and shall be paid under the same terms and conditions as regular benefits. These training benefits shall be paid after any extended benefits or any similar benefits paid by a federally funded program;

(4) Priority for training funds provided under subdivision (3) of this section shall be given to claimants laid off through no fault of their own from Missouri automobile manufacturing facilities;

(5) No charges shall be made against an employer's account in respect to benefits paid to a claimant under this section;

(6) The director shall separately track payments that were made under this section. Once the amount of payments exceeds the amount of federal incentive funds made available because of the enactment of this section, the unemployment compensation fund shall be reimbursed from general revenue for all subsequent payments to the claimants;

*(7) The provisions of this section shall be subject to renewal in the second regular session of the ninety-fifth general assembly. If not renewed, the provisions of this section shall expire once the funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are expended as provided in this section;

*(8) The provisions of this section shall not take effect, and no benefits paid under this section, unless first certified by the United States Secretary of Labor under 42 U.S.C. 1103, as amended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.