350.
(a) There is hereby established within the Employment Development Department the Office of the Claimant Advocate, which is responsible for protecting Californian’s rights in seeking benefits administered by the department, including unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and paid family leave.(b) The office shall conduct several activities as part of this function, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Establishing and enforcing a Claimant’s Bill of Rights that outlines an individual’s rights to benefit programs administered by the department, including, but not limited to, a right to report violations of these rights as described in paragraph (2) and to
seek help in enforcing these rights through the office.
(2) Establishing and implementing a system that allows claimants to report violations of their rights under this code to the office. The office shall be responsible for assisting the claimant in resolving those violations.
(3) Engaging claimants and advocates who represent them in identifying systemic access issues to benefits and making recommendations to solve those systemic access issues. This engagement includes, but is not limited to, reviewing a claimant’s ability to contact the department regarding basic and claim-specific information through telephonic and online means.
(4) Establishing and updating, as necessary, an internet webpage on the department’s internet website that includes information on the functions of the office and the relevant contact
information for claimants to report violations of their rights and seek help in accessing benefits.
(5) Communicating to claimants and community-based organizations any proposed changes to the benefit programs, including, but not limited to, changes to the paper or online applications for benefits.
(c) (1) The office shall issue a report on a yearly basis to the Legislature that includes data on levels and trends through the past year for all of the following categories:
(A) Utilization of benefit programs aggregated by income level.
(B) Processing times for benefit programs for both online and paper applications for benefits.
(C) Systemic access issues identified by
the office and recommendations and actions taken by the office to resolve those issues.
(2) A report submitted pursuant to this section shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.