Office of the Claimant Advocate and Stakeholder Advisory Group.

Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department, administered by the Director of Employment Development, within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties related to the administration of the state unemployment and disability compensation programs. Existing law provides that the expense of the administration of specified provisions relating to unemployment compensation shall be paid out of the Unemployment Administration Fund, which is a continuously appropriated fund, except as provided. This bill would establish the Office of the Claimant Advocate, within the Employment Development Department, and would make the office responsible for protecting Californians' rights in seeking benefits administered by the department, including unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and paid family leave. The bill would require the office to conduct several activities to provide non-claim-specific assistance to claimants, including, but not limited to, upholding the Claimant's Bill of Rights, as specified, establishing and implementing a system that allows claimants to learn about and report violations of their rights to the office, and assisting claimants in resolving those violations, as provided. The bill, commencing January 1, 2024, would require the office to issue a yearly report to specified policy committees of the Legislature and legislative leadership on various data trends from the past year, including utilization of benefit programs aggregated by income level, processing times for benefit programs for both online and paper applications, and systemic access issues identified by the office and a complete list of recommendations and actions taken by the office to resolve those issues. This bill would also establish the Stakeholder Advisory Group within the Employment Development Department, to be administered by the Claimant and Stakeholder Liaison, which informs the department with policy expertise and firsthand knowledge of claimant experiences. The bill would specify the activities of the group, including, but not limited to, engaging with the Office of the Claimant Advocate and stakeholders in identifying systemic access issues to benefits and making recommendations to solve those issues, and creating and publishing a Claimant's Bill of Rights that outlines an individual's right to benefit programs administered by the department within one year of establishment of the group. Because this bill would authorize the expenditure of funds from the Unemployment Administration Fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.