Report 2014-101 Recommendation 2 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 #2 To: Employment Development Department

To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should revise its Web site and the materials that accompany the continued claim form to provide specific instructions to claimants on how to avoid common errors that claimants make when reporting wages, such as the error of applying some wages to the incorrect week.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2016

As indicated in the prior response, the EDD's website was updated in November 2014 to provide substantive information on how to report wages properly in weeks of unemployment. Additionally, UI Online℠ includes specific continued claim instructions and a Help Text feature to further assist claimants in avoiding common errors when reporting work and wages.

Furthermore, between September 2015 and April 2016, EDD completed and posted four YouTube videos on the EDD's website and YouTube channel in both English and Spanish. The instructional videos include information on how to report work and wages properly when certifying for UI benefits including regular, entertainment industry, self-employment, commission, bonus, pension, and other types of income. These tutorials can be accessed on the EDD's website at http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/UI_Online_Videos.htm.

Finally, as mentioned in the prior response, EDD began including fraud prevention educational materials in its UI mailings to claimants, beginning March 2015. The fraud prevention materials cover topics such as how to report work and wages properly to avoid potential overpayments and fraud penalties. These materials were mailed to claimants for a one-year period and are now available on the EDD's website. Furthermore, in May 2016, following a collaboration with claimant advocacy groups, EDD completed an update to the booklet, Unemployment Insurance Benefits: What You Need to Know (DE 1275B), which now incorporates the information from its chart, Step-By-Step Guide: How to Certify for Ongoing Unemployment Benefits (DE 1275C). As a result of these efforts, claimants have been given expanded guidance on how to report work and wages properly.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

As indicated in our six-month response, as of November 2014 our website provides enhanced information on how to properly allocate wages in weeks of unemployment, specifically when the employer's work week/pay week is not the same as the statutory unemployment reporting week. We are making progress with revisions to the Step-By-Step Guide: How to Certify for Ongoing Unemployment Benefits (DE 1275C) and our efforts to include ways to reference examples similar to what was published on our website. In addition, we continue to meet with claimant advocacy groups to discuss the revised DE 1275C material to ensure that it is meaningful and useful. We expect to publish the changes to the DE 1275C in September 2015.

On April 25, 2015, we successfully implemented the UI Online system, which includes useful continued claim instructions and Help Text to further assist claimants in avoiding common errors.

Additionally, EDD is creating YouTube videos on how to properly report work and earnings when certifying for UI benefits. These tutorials provide various examples with calendar visuals and will be available in both English and Spanish. We expect the YouTube videos to be available to our customers on social media beginning in

August 2015. Separately, as anticipated, we began our endeavors in March 2015 to include fraud prevention educational materials (cited in our six-month response) with UI mailings. We are on target with the expected completion date in December 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

In November 2014, we updated our website to include information demonstrating how claimants should allocate wages to weeks of unemployment, especially in situations when the employer's work week/pay week is not the same as the statutory unemployment reporting week. We are currently revising the Step-By-Step Guide: How to Certify for Ongoing Unemployment Benefits (DE 1275C) to include ways to reference examples similar to what was published on our website. Changes to this publication are expected to be released no later than June 2015. Additionally, beginning in March and continuing through December 2015, we will be including fraud prevention educational materials with UI mailings to remind claimants about UI fraud, the common causes of fraud such as failing to report work and wages or reporting them incorrectly, and the consequences of committing fraud, which include overpayments and penalties.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

In addition to the information we already have in place to educate claimants on how to avoid common errors that claimants make when reporting wages, we are in the process of developing additional examples for our website demonstrating how claimants should allocate wages to weeks of unemployment, especially in situations when the employer's work week/pay week is not the same as the statutory unemployment reporting week. We expect to publish those examples on our website no later than November 2014. We are also reviewing the Step-By-Step Guide: How to Certify for Ongoing Unemployment Benefits (DE 1275C) for ways to reference examples similar to what will be published on the website. Given the space limitations on the DE 1275C, an alternative may be to include a reference to our website where claimants can locate examples of how to allocate wages. Any changes will be incorporated in the next printing of the DE 1275C, which will be in 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2014-101

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.