BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1556 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1556 (Perea) As Amended March 17, 2014 Majority vote INSURANCE 8-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-4 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Perea, Bradford, Ian |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, | | |Calderon, Cooley, | |Bradford, | | |Dababneh, Frazier, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, | | |Gonzalez, V. Manuel Pérez | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, | | | | |Pan, Quirk, | | | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber | | | | | | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| |Nays:|Allen, Beth Gaines |Nays:|Bigelow, Allen, Donnelly, | | | | |Wagner | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Codifies a number of reforms to the policies and practices in the unemployment insurance (UI) program. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires the Employment Development Department (EDD) to translate key documents and publications for both the UI program and state disability insurance (SDI) program into seven additional languages. 2)Requires EDD to translate Web site pages providing information regarding applying for and receiving UI benefits into seven additional languages. 3)Requires the EDD director to periodically review the UI program to identify policies and practices that delay benefit payments, increase EDD workload, and provide little or no value in identifying or preventing fraud in the UI program. 4)Requires the EDD director to report the results of the first review to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2015. 5)Prohibits EDD from automatically halting the payment of UI benefits and requiring a redetermination of eligibility when a claimant begins a training or education program. AB 1556 Page 2 6)Prohibits EDD from automatically halting the payment of UI benefits and requiring a redetermination of eligibility until a claim certification form is more than 21 days late. EXISTING LAW : 1)Provides unemployment insurance benefits to workers who are laid off or leave their jobs for good cause. 2)Requires recipients of UI benefits to answer the following questions for each week of benefits claimed: a) Were you healthy enough to work? b) Were you available to accept full-time work? c) Did you look for work? d) Did you refuse any work? e) Did you begin attending school or training? f) Did you earn any money? 3)Requires EDD to publish informational material in both English and Spanish. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, negligible additional state costs. COMMENTS : 1)Purpose. On November 6, 2013, the Assembly Insurance Committee held an oversight hearing to address problems created in the UI program associated with the rollout of a new computer system. Recommendations were made in the hearing to help EDD improve several aspects of the UI program. A follow up letter with those action items was sent to EDD. EDD has implemented some of those action items and expects to take further action, specifically call center improvements, by the end of June. This bill ensures that key policy changes implemented by EDD are reflected in statute, and requires that EDD work to increase the efficiency of the UI program on an AB 1556 Page 3 ongoing basis. 2)UI Program Performance. The UI program has struggled with poor service levels for many years. The program has failed to meet key federal performance standards, including timeliness of payment standards, for over a decade. However, UI program performance plummeted in September 2013 after EDD encountered problems after deploying a new computer system. Hundreds of thousands of claims were delayed and the EDD call centers were overwhelmed with millions of calls from affected claimants. Ongoing problems associated with the deployment of the new computer system and continuously declining staffing levels left the program staggering under the weight of the added workload. 3)Budget Proposal. On February 7, 2014, the Secretary of the Labor and Workforce Agency (Agency) directed EDD to take a range of actions to address performance problems in the UI program. A letter from the Agency Secretary to EDD outlined the Administration's plan for addressing the problems with the UI program. The plan includes: a) Hiring 280 additional staff, starting March 1, 2014. b) Retaining 250 permanent intermittent staff currently in place until June 30, 2015. c) Continue overtime pay. d) Rehiring up to 50 program staff that are trained and can provide UI services immediately. e) Hiring 155 program staff to fill existing vacancies. f) Implementing virtual hold/automatic call notification technology for callers to EDD's UI system to improve customer service. g) Obtaining additional information technology expertise at EDD. 4)Language Barriers. The American Community Survey reports that more than 43% of Californians speak a language other than English at home. The same survey reports that nearly 20% of AB 1556 Page 4 Californians report that they speak English "less than very well." EDD is pursuing a "self-service" strategy to better manage the UI workload, but it has not provided many of the materials that claimants can use to navigate the self-service options in languages other than English and Spanish. In order for EDD to execute their self-service strategy it needs to make more of its materials and Web site available in more languages. EDD has committed to translating key forms and explanatory materials in seven additional languages (existing law already requires documents to be translated into Spanish). Analysis Prepared by : Paul Riches / INS. / (916) 319-2086 FN: 0003141