In this chapter, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the following terms have the meanings indicated. Terms Defined. “Agent state” means any state in which an individual files a claim for benefits from another state. “Basic Plan for Combining Wages” means an interstate agreement which establishes a system whereby unemployed workers who lack qualifying wages sufficient for benefits in any one state, may through combining wages from more than one state, become eligible for benefits. “Benefits” means the compensation payable to an individual, with respect to his unemployment, under the unemployment insurance law of any state. “Extended Plan for Combining Wages” means an interstate agreement which establishes a system whereby unemployed workers having sufficient base-period wages to qualify for less than maximum benefits in one or more states and insufficient base-period wages to qualify for benefits in one or more states, may increase the benefits to which they are entitled by combining wages in one of the states in which they have sufficient base-period wages with base-period wages in all states in which they have insufficient wages. “Interstate Benefit Payment Plan” means the plan approved by the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies under which benefits shall be payable to unemployed individuals absent from the state (or states) in which benefit credits have been accumulated. “Interstate claimant” means an individual who claims benefits under the unemployment insurance law of one or more liable states through the facilities of an agent state. The term “interstate claimant” does not include any individual who customarily commutes from a residence in an agent state to work in a liable state unless the Maryland Department of Labor finds that this exclusion would create undue hardship on the claimants in specified areas. “Liable state” means any state against which an individual files, through another state, a claim for benefits. “State” includes District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, Samoa, and the Philippine Islands. “Week of unemployment” includes any week of unemployment as defined in the law of the liable state from which benefits with respect to these weeks are claimed.