On October 6, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the AB 110 bill that is effective immediately. This bill requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide the name, known aliases, birth date, social security number, booking date, and expected release date, if known, of a current inmate to the Employment Development Department (EDD). The bill also requires the EDD to request this information on the first of every month. This bill is an imposed state-mandated local program that would expand the scope of an existing crime.
The Director of Employment Development is required to verify with the information provided by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that the claimant is not an inmate currently incarcerated in the state prisons. The EDDD is also required to complete the necessary system programming or automation upgrades to allow electronic monitoring the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate data to prevent payment on fraudulent claims for unemployment compensation benefits at the earliest possible date, but no later than September 1, 2023.
How does this affect employers?
AB 110 allows EDD to access incarceration records for the purpose of cross-checking. It would require EDD to perform these checks as part of its fraud prevention efforts before approving benefits, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would be required to work with EDD to facilitate the cross-checking process. Having this fraud detection process within EDD would prevent employers from seeing more fraudulent claims and fewer benefit charges hitting the employer’s account, which in turn would increase their unemployment rate.
