Bill Text: CA AB152 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Unemployment: Self-Employment Assistance Program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB152 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB152-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 152 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 21, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Yamada
JANUARY 18, 2013
An act to add Article 2.3 (commencing with Section 1301) to
Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 1 of, and to repeal and
add Section 1300 of, the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to
unemployment insurance, making an appropriation therefor, and
declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 152, as amended, Yamada. Unemployment: Self-Employment
Assistance Program.
Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation
benefits during the period that a person is unemployed. Existing law
imposes various requirements on the payments of benefits, including
work search requirements. Existing law also establishes retraining
programs for unemployed workers. Prior law, enacted in 1994 and
repealed in 2005, established the Self-Employment Assistance Program
for displaced workers.
This bill would establish a similar Self-Employment Assistance
Program, to be administered by the Director of the Employment
Development. The bill would provide for a weekly allowance for
participants equal to regular unemployment benefits, subject to
various limits, and would impose various eligibility requirements
upon participants, and would waive requirements relating to job
search and self-employment, as specified.
Since the benefits would be payable from the continuously
appropriated Unemployment Fund, the bill would make an appropriation.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1300 of the Unemployment Insurance Code is
repealed.
SEC. 2. Section 1300 is added to the Unemployment Insurance Code,
to read:
1300. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California and the national economy are recovering from the
deepest recession since the Great Depression; recent data indicates
that approximately 700,000 Californians are currently claiming
unemployment insurance benefits.
(b) The demand for unemployment insurance benefits remains
unusually high because more people are staying unemployed longer.
Global competition and rapidly evolving technologies have resulted in
the dislocation of millions of workers from their jobs, and even
with the creation of new jobs, layoffs have become permanent instead
of a temporary experience during fluctuation in the business cycle.
(c) As reported in the November 2012 California Labor Market
Review, 45.7 percent, or approximately 8887,00
888,700 of those unemployed have been so for 27 weeks or
more and approximately 34.6 percent of all unemployed, or 671,000,
have been so for one year or more.
(d) Currently, 73 weeks of benefits, regular unemployment
insurance combined with federal extensions, is the maximum number of
weeks a claimant may collect. As of December 17, 2012, over 923,000
unemployed workers in California have run out of all benefits.
(e) There remains a critical need for California policies that
will create faster economic and job growth and support for those
struggling to find a job.
(f) In 1993, the federal government created the Self-Employment
Assistance Program for a five-year period, based on positive results
from experimental self-employment demonstration projects conducted by
the United States Department of Labor, in collaboration with state
employment agencies. Federal law made the program permanent in 1998.
(g) Prior California law, enacted in 1994 and repealed in 2005,
established the state Self-Employment Assistance Program as an
alternative use of unemployment insurance. This program was an
important component of a broader workforce system strategy to promote
entrepreneurship and microbusiness development, both as a
reemployment strategy and to support economic development through job
creation.
(h) State unemployment insurance programs in Delaware, Maine, New
Jersey, New York, and Oregon actively offer unemployed workers the
option of reemployment through self-employment assistance programs.
(I)
(i) The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of
2012 expanded Self-Employment Assistance Program eligibility,
provided funding for states to implement or improve these programs,
and directed the Department of Labor and the Small Business
Administration to coordinate efforts to help more Americans start and
grow small businesses.
(j) The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012
provides thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) for
Self-Employment Assistance Program grants. Of this amount, California
could receive approximately five million three hundred thousand
dollars ($5,300,000). Of this amount, four million six hundred
thousand dollars ($4,600,000) is available for implementation and
administration of the Self-Employment Assistance Program. The
remaining seven hundred sixty-nine thousand seven hundred ninety-six
dollars ($769,796) is available for the promotion of the
Self-Employment Assistance Program.
(k) The Self-Employment Assistance Program is a voluntary
state-run program that provides unemployed individuals financial
support while they pursue full-time self-employment assistance
activities that lead to establishing a business and becoming
self-employed.
(l) The California Employment Development Department (EDD) must
identify an individual, through a worker profiling system, as likely
to exhaust benefits to receive, in lieu of unemployment benefits, a
weekly allowance equal to the individual's weekly unemployment
compensation benefit without having to search for full-time wage
employment.
(m) The EDD monitors self-employment assistance activities that
include entrepreneurial training, business counseling, and business
technical assistance. A network of more than 125 organizations
throughout the state provides these services.
(n) The Self-Employment Assistance Program is a limited program
appropriate to just a small fraction of unemployment insurance
benefit claimants. It can help some current unemployment insurance
benefit recipients and those who have exhausted their unemployment
insurance benefits, probably no more than one or 2 percent.
(o) It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation that would authorize the establishment of a
Self-Employment Assistance Program administered by the Director of
Employment Development for the state to become eligible to apply for
federal funds by June 30, 2013, to establish, promote, and operate
the program.
SEC. 3. Article 2.3 (commencing with Section 1301) is added to
Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Unemployment Insurance Code,
to read:
Article 2.3. Self-Employment Assistance Program
1301. As used in this article:
(a) "Full-time basis" shall have the same meaning as is contained
in regulations prescribed by the director.
(b) "Regular benefits" means benefits payable to an individual
under this part, including benefits payable to federal civilian
employees and to ex-service members pursuant to Chapter 85
(commencing with Section 8501) of Title 5 of the United States Code,
other than additional and extended benefits.
(c) "Self-employment assistance activities" means activities
approved by the director in which an individual , identified
through a worker profiling system as likely to exhaust regular
benefits, participates for the purpose of establishing a
business and becoming self-employed. These activities shall include,
but are not limited to, entrepreneurial training, business
counseling, and technical assistance.
(d) "Self-employment assistance allowance" means an allowance
payable in lieu of regular benefits and from the Unemployment Fund
established under Section 1521 to an individual participating in
self-employment assistance activities who meets the requirements of
this article.
(e) "Self-Employment Assistance Program" means the program that
enables an unemployed individual approved under this article to
engage in self-employment assistance activities on a full-time basis
that will lead to establishing a business and becoming self-employed.
1302. The weekly allowance payable under this article to an
individual shall be equal to the weekly benefit amount for regular
benefits otherwise payable under Article 2 (commencing with Section
1275). The sum of the allowance payable under this article and the
regular benefits paid under this part with respect to any benefit
year shall not exceed the maximum benefit amount as established by
Section 1281 with respect to that benefit year.
1303. The allowance described in Section 1302 shall be payable to
an individual at the same interval, on the same terms, and subject
to the same conditions as regular benefits under this part, except as
follows:
(a) The requirements relating to availability for work, active
search for work, and refusal to accept work shall not apply to any
week that the individual is in training or engaged in self-employment
activities as approved by this article.
(b) Income earned by an individual while engaged in
self-employment activities as approved under this article shall not
be construed to be wages or compensation for personal services under
this division, and benefits payable under this division shall not be
denied or reduced because of those payments.
(c) An individual who fails to participate in self-employment
assistance activities or who fails to actively engage
on a full-time basis in activities, which may include
training , relating related to the
establishment of a business and becoming self-employed shall be
disqualified for the week the failure occurs.
1304. An individual is eligible to be paid a self-employment
assistance allowance if he or she meets all of the following
conditions:
(a) Is eligible to receive regular unemployment compensation under
state law.
(b) Has been identified pursuant to an automated profiling system
as likely to exhaust regular unemployment compensation.
(c) Has been approved for participation in the Self-Employment
Assistance Program by the director.
(d) Is engaged on a full-time basis in self-employment assistance
activities, which may include, but not be limited to, entrepreneurial
training, business counseling, and technical assistance related to
establishing a business and becoming self-employed.
1305. The aggregate number of individuals receiving the allowance
under this article at any time shall not exceed 5
percent of the number of individuals receiving regular benefits
in the same week . The director shall, through regulations,
prescribe those actions necessary to ensure the requirements of this
section are met.
1306. (a) Self-employment assistance allowances paid under this
article shall be charged to employers as provided under provisions of
this part relating related to the
charging of regular benefits. Costs of administering the
self-employment assistance allowances are payable from the
Self-Employment Assistance Program grant received from the federal
Department of Labor, which allocates approximately five million three
hundred thousand dollars ($5,300,000) to California for such
purposes. Costs of providing self-employment assistance activities,
such as business training, business counseling, and technical
assistance are payable from federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998
funds and other government and private grants.
(b) For purposes of this article, costs of administering the
program include marketing, staff training, review of applications,
assessment of applicants, payment of allowances, and relating
information technology costs.
1307. The provisions of this article shall become operative two
weeks beginning after the effective date of this article or two weeks
beginning after any plan required by the United State Department of
Labor relating to a Self-Employment Assistance Program is approved by
the United States Department of Labor, whichever date is later.
Immediately upon enactment of this article, the director shall
develop a Self-Employment Assistance Program plan and seek approval
from the United States Department of Labor.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure that the Employment Development Department
postmark a completed application on or before June 30, 2013, in order
to receive grants from the United States Department of Labor to
develop, enhance, and promote a Self-Employment Assistance Program,
it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
