Unemployment insurance: benefits: eligibility.

Existing law provides that an unemployed individual is eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits with respect to any week only if the Director of Employment Development makes certain findings, including that the person was able to work and was available for work that week. Under existing law, unemployment compensation benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, which is continuously appropriated for this purpose. This bill would prohibit an unemployed individual who is otherwise eligible for unemployment compensation benefits from being deemed ineligible, and would require that individual to be considered as being able to and available for work, for any week in which the individual meets any of certain conditions, including if the claimant is available exclusively for telework for which the claimant is reasonably fitted. Because this bill would make changes to existing eligibility requirements for unemployment compensation benefits that would result in additional amounts being payable from the Unemployment Fund, a continuously appropriated special fund, the bill would make an appropriation.