Establishing a return to work incentive program, making an appropriation, and including effective date provisions

This bill establishes a return to work incentive program and makes an appropriation. The bill establishes a return to work incentive program within the department of workforce development. The department shall provide an individual who is eligible to receive benefits under the incentive program a weekly benefit amount of $100 for a maximum period of weeks as available funding provides. The bill requires an individual meet certain criteria before the individual is eligible for return to work benefits. The criteria requires the individual to have been receiving unemployment benefits between the bill’s effective date and December 1, 2022, and, prior to exhausting the individual’s benefits, the individual accepted an offer of full-time employment; to have never previously participated in the return to work program; to not be receiving unemployment benefits or payments from a similar program from another state; to provide employer contact information for a person who is not the individual, including but not limited to an Iowa business address, or a home address if the job is performed remotely, and a telephone number for a supervisor; to provide a paystub or other proof that the individual is employed as established by the department of workforce development by rule for each week the individual applies for benefits under the return to work program; and work a minimum of hours for each week the individual is applying for return to work benefits. The bill provides that payments under the return to work incentive program shall be made on a weekly basis as an individual participates in the program. The bill provides that an individual who is considered temporarily unemployed or is a part of a voluntary shared work compensation program shall not be eligible for return to work program benefits. The bill provides that the return to work incentive program shall terminate on December 31, 2023. The bill appropriates $10 million for FY 2021-2022 from the state fiscal recovery fund of the American rescue plan to the department of workforce development for the return to work program. Moneys appropriated shall not revert to the general fund of the state at the close of the fiscal year, but shall remain available for expenditure during the succeeding fiscal year. This bill becomes effective upon enactment.