Report 2014-101 Recommendation 1 Responses
Report 2014-101: Employment Development Department: It Should Improve Its Efforts to Minimize Avoidable Appeals of Its Eligibility Determinations for Unemployment Insurance Benefits (Release Date: August 2014)
Recommendation #1 To: Employment Development Department
To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, the Employment Development Department (EDD) should change its practices to ensure that its staff have demonstrated that all of the necessary elements of a false statement are adequately supported before disqualifying a claimant for unemployment benefits or assessing the associated 30 percent penalty on that basis. To do this, EDD should update its training to further emphasize that false statement disqualifications, especially those resulting from wage reporting, cannot be assessed unless all of the elements are present.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2016
As indicated in the prior response, EDD implemented the first phase of this recommendation in December 2014, which included delivering statewide training to staff on the application of false statement disqualifications, as defined in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Code, Section 1257(a). In March 2016, EDD delivered additional training to staff statewide to further emphasize the proper assessment of false statement disqualifications.
Implementation of the second phase of this recommendation included a comprehensive review of Section 1257(a). The review included policy and procedure updates to ensure that all elements of a false statement are adequately supported before assessing a disqualification. Based on the review of sample cases, EDD provided clarifying guidance to staff through a UI Program Notice issued in September 2016. The guidance was designed to assist staff in determining whether or not all of the necessary elements of a false statement are clearly present and supported in cases that involve wage reporting issues. More specifically, the notice guides staff in using the claim history to determine whether the elements of a false statement are supported, including whether the claimant's actions were willful.
- Completion Date: September 2016
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
1-Year Agency Response
As indicated in our six-month response, in December 2014 we implemented the first phase of this recommendation, which included delivering training to staff statewide regarding the application of UI Code, Section 1257(a). The second phase involves a comprehensive review of Section 1257(a) policies and procedures and making the corresponding updates to our policies and training. Another part of the comprehensive review and potential findings will be based on the sample of Section 1257(a) appeal decisions reviewed for Recommendation 8. The second phase of implementation and review of Section 1257(a) policies will begin in mid-2016 due to its dependency on Recommendation 8.
- Estimated Completion Date: Mid-2016
- Response Date: August 2015
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented
6-Month Agency Response
As indicated in our 60-day response, this recommendation is being implemented in two phases. The first phase of implementation involved delivering training to staff statewide regarding the application of UI Code, Section 1257(a) by the end of 2014; this was completed in December 2014. The implementation of the second phase, which is a comprehensive review of Section 1257(a) policies and procedures and making corresponding updates to our policies and training, will begin in mid-2015.
- Estimated Completion Date: Mid-2015
- Response Date: February 2015
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
60-Day Agency Response
This recommendation is being implemented in two phases. The first phase of implementation is currently in progress and involves updating and delivering training to staff statewide regarding the application of UI Code, Section 1257(a) to staff statewide by the end of 2014. We are in the development phase of updating the training and are on target to deliver the training to staff by December 2014. For the implementation of the second phase, in 2015 the Employment Development Department (EDD) will begin a comprehensive review of our Section 1257(a) policies and procedures and will update those as needed, in addition to making any necessary updates to our training.
- Estimated Completion Date: 2015
- Response Date: October 2014
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2014-101
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.