Unemployment insurance: benefit determination deadlines.

Existing law authorizes the Employment Development Department (department) to administer the federal-state unemployment insurance program and provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law establishes procedures for the filing, determination, and payment of benefit claims, and those benefits are payable from the Unemployment Fund. Existing law requires the department to promptly pay benefits if it finds the claimant is eligible and to promptly deny benefits if it finds the claimant is ineligible for benefits. Existing law requires the department to consider facts submitted by an employer in making this determination and also provides for the department to audit claims, as specified. Existing law provides a procedure for a claimant or a base employer to challenge a determination of the computation or recomputation of the benefits. This bill would require the department to provide a claimant with a notification of the computation used to determine their benefits within 30 days of the receipt of the claim and to respond to a challenge by the claimant or the base employer based on the computation or recomputation of benefits within 15 days of the receipt of the protest, except as specified. This bill would also make technical changes to these provisions. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.