Disability benefits for workers who lose their job

(a) An employee whose employment with a covered employer is terminated and who during a period of unemployment within twenty-six weeks immediately following such termination of employment becomes ineligible for benefits claimed under chapter 383 solely because of disability commencing on or after January 1, 1970, and who on the day the disability commences is not employed and is not then otherwise eligible for benefits under this chapter, shall be entitled to receive disability benefits as hereinafter provided for each week of such disability for which week the employee would have received unemployment insurance benefits if the employee were not so disabled. (b) The weekly benefits payable to the disabled unemployed shall be the same as the benefits to which the individual would be entitled under chapter 383 except for the individual's disability; provided that in a case of a disabled unemployed who is performing some form of less than full-time work as referred to in the definition of unemployment in section 383-1 at the time the disability arises, the individual shall receive benefits which the individual would have been entitled to had the individual not been performing less than full-time work; provided further that benefits payable under this section shall not be payable for a period longer than twenty-six weeks from the time the above unemployed commences to receive unemployment benefits payable under chapter 383. (c) The benefits payable under this section shall be paid by the director out of any assets in the fund created by section 392-61. The payments shall be made through employment offices, as this term is defined and used in chapter 383. The director may require an employee claiming benefits under this section to file proofs of disability and other proofs reasonably necessary for the director to make a determination of eligibility and benefit rights under this section. The director may establish reasonable procedures for determining pro rata benefits payable with respect to disability periods of less than one week. Any employee claiming benefits under this section whose claim is rejected in whole or in part by the director shall be entitled to request review and shall have all the rights with respect to disputed claims provided in this chapter.