District 1 Assemblywoman Megan Dahle has authored a bill that will modernize the Employment Development Department’s process of providing important financial information to employers regarding claimants that have been approved to receive benefits from their account. EDD will be required make this information available on its website in real-time, as claims are approved, thereby preventing billions of dollars of insurance fraud at the expense of the taxpayer. The bill will be heard at an Assembly Insurance Committee Hearing in the near future.
Please consider sending in a letter of support to staff contact Tess Scherkenback at [email protected] or by submitting them online to the Assembly Insurance Committee at https://ains.assembly.ca.gov/. At this link, on the right top side of the website, there is a button that says submit position letter. Download a draft of the support letter by clicking the button at the bottom of the page.
The following information is taken from the AB 980 Fact Sheet.
Bill Summary:
AB 980 will increase transparency and accessibility of claim information by requiring Employment Development Department (EDD) to make information about claims that have been approved available on its website for employers to review.
Problem:
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, EDD has been embroiled in scandal and criticism for their failure to process UI claims and excessive fraud within their system. Current estimates suggest that nearly $11 billion has been paid out in fraudulent UI claims over the course of the pandemic, and their system is in desperate need of improvements to mitigate this.
Employers’ lack of access to information on approved UI claims is a prime example of EDD’s need for reform to prevent fraud. After a UI claim is approved, employers have no way of accessing a complete list of claims that have been approved to draw benefits from their account and dispute fraudulent claims until they receive their Statement of Charges to Reserve Account. This statement is delivered in the mail once a year, and only then do employers have necessary information to report potentially fraudulent claims. This excessive window of time between receiving statements leaves the potential for fraud to occur before an employer can report it.
Solution:
AB 980 will modernize EDD’s process of providing important financial information to employers regarding claimants that have been approved to receive benefits from their account. EDD will be required make this information available on its website in real-time, as claims are approved.
Furthermore, EDD will be required to update this list at least once every two weeks to ensure the list of approved claimants is current, and include on this webpage a method by which the employer can object to the approved claim and provide additional information about the claimant.
