Provides that to achieve cost savings to businesses and the state, improve decision timeliness, and minimize wrong-sized payments to eligible beneficiaries the department of labor shall obtain current employment and income information from a third-party provider, supplementing current state wage reporting files from the department of taxation and finance.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7575
SPONSOR: Bronson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to wage reporting in the
unemployment insurance law
PURPOSE:
To direct the Department of Labor to utilize current income and employ-
ment verification services to cut down on unemployment insurance fraud
and improper payments
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Authorizes the department to contract with a third-party
provider to receive. current income and employment verification services
for use in eligibility and redeterminations.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
Section 502 of the Labor law currently allows the Department of Labor to
have complete access of wage reporting files maintained by the Depart-
ment of Taxation Finance. This data includes quarterly wage data filed
by employers in the state. While helpful, this data is often stale when
an individual goes to apply for unemployment benefits. This creates
opportunity in the system for improper payments and fraud to be perpe-
trated.
In November of 2022, the State Comptroller released an audit of the
controls and management of the unemployment system, alleging $11B in
fraud. This included estimates of a 10.34% improper payment rate and
4.51% fraud for SFY19-20, as well as a 28.89% improper payment rate and
17.79% fraud rate for SFY21-22. While the Department of Labor countered
that their own fraud estimate was $4B - this still demonstrates that
this is a significant problem that-needs to be addressed. New York busi-
nesses are the ones paying the price - and need relief.
Opportunities currently exist for the state to seek federal funds
through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to pay for tools and
services that address unemployment insurance fraud, improper payment and
overpayment based on a recent report from the U.S. Department of Labor.
However, time is of the essence, as requests for funding need to be made
this July. New York should not waste this opportunity to improve our
unemployment insurance systems with data that is not collected on a
quarterly basis, but rather potentially current as of the last pay peri-
od.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7575
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 25, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRONSON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to wage reporting in the
unemployment insurance law
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 502 of the labor law is amended by adding a new
2 undesignated paragraph to read as follows:
3 Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, to achieve cost savings
4 to businesses and the state, improve decision timeliness, and minimize
5 wrong-sized payments to eligible beneficiaries the department shall
6 obtain current employment and income information from a third-party
7 provider, supplementing current state wage reporting files from the
8 department of taxation and finance.
9 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11530-01-3
