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Wilk measure could help stem unemployment fraud

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State Sen. Scott Wilk (R-21) took a solid swipe at eradicating the rampant fraud stemming from Employment Development Department (EDD) mismanagement with the recent passage of Senate Bill 58 (SB 58) by the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employees and Retirement. This legislation would require the agency to stop including full social security numbers on its correspondence.

Senate Bill 58 (SB 58) introduced by Wilk and Melissa Hurtado (D-14), stems from a 2019 State’s Auditor recommendation that the EDD stop including full social security numbers on correspondence – an archaic and dangerous practice most government agencies and private companies no longer do because of issues with fraud.

“It was shocking to learn that EDD still included full Social Security numbers on its correspondence, despite a being warned by the State’s Auditor in 2019 that this practice increases the risk of fraud. Now thousands of unemployed Californians find themselves victims of fraud when it all could have been avoided,” Wilk said. “EDD can’t put the worms back in the can for the latest crop of victims, but we can sure force the agency to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Last fall a group of California’s District Attorneys sounded the alarm on the extent of the fraud associated with unemployment scams at EDD, stating it could be “the most significant fraud on the taxpayers in California’s history.”

The federal government reportedly told the Newsom administration in the spring that the dysfunction at EDD put it at high risk for fraud, yet the agency continued to include social security numbers on correspondence. In subsequent weeks, legislative offices began to receive calls from constituents about letters requesting personal information or unemployment debit cards arriving at the incorrect address. In some instances as many as 40 letters addressed to different individuals would arrive at an address – a seemingly clear indicator of fraud.

“The Newsom administration’s mismanagement of EDD over the course of the pandemic is staggering. You’d think after putting millions of Californians out of work, the governor would have prioritized fixing any problems with the agency that came to his attention, but he didn’t,” Wilk said. “It gives me zero confidence the agency will take the necessary steps to protect people’s identities without a push by the Legislature.”

SB 58 passed the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employees and Retirement on a unanimous vote. Its next stop is the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is jointly authored by Hurtado and co authored by Sen. Anna Caballero (D-12), and local Assemblymembers Tom Lackey (R-36) and Suzette Valladare (R-38).

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