Employment Development Department: unemployment insurance claimants: assistance.

Existing law establishes the Employment Development Department within the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and sets forth its powers and duties, including administration of the unemployment and disability insurance programs for California. Existing law requires the department to pay unemployment compensation benefits to unemployed individuals meeting specified requirements, to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program, and to report to the Legislature, as specified. Under existing law, unemployment compensation benefits are paid from the Unemployment Fund, and the expenses for administering these provisions are paid from the Unemployment Administration Fund, which is continuously appropriated for these purposes. This bill would require the department to implement a formal policy no later than October 1, 2021, that establishes a process for tracking and periodically analyzing call information data to determine the reasons why unemployment insurance claimants call the department for assistance. The bill would require the department, every 6 months thereafter, to analyze the data it has collected in order to improve its call center. The bill would require the department, in conducting its analysis, to identify and resolve weaknesses or problems with the way it provides assistance to claimants. The bill would require the department to take additional actions, including to develop a recession plan to prepare for future economic downturns by January 1, 2022, to update that recession plan at least once every 3 years thereafter, and to report this information to the Legislature, as specified. Because this bill would authorize the expenditure of funds from the Unemployment Administration Fund for new purposes, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.