Bill Text: IL SB3178 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Amends provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act prohibiting the disclosure of information obtained from an individual or employing unit during the administration of the Act. In language providing that the prohibition does not apply to communication with an individual or entity through unencrypted e-mail or unencrypted electronic means as long as the communication does not contain the individual's or entity's name in combination with specified numbers or codes, deletes "account number" from the numbers and codes. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-05-03 - Referred to Rules Committee [SB3178 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2015-SB3178-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning employment.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Unemployment Insurance Act is amended by
changing Section 1900 as follows:
(820 ILCS 405/1900) (from Ch. 48, par. 640)
Sec. 1900. Disclosure of information.
A. Except as provided in this Section, information obtained
from any individual or employing unit during the administration
of this Act shall:
1. be confidential,
2. not be published or open to public inspection,
3. not be used in any court in any pending action or
proceeding,
4. not be admissible in evidence in any action or
proceeding other than one arising out of this Act.
B. No finding, determination, decision, ruling or order
(including any finding of fact, statement or conclusion made
therein) issued pursuant to this Act shall be admissible or
used in evidence in any action other than one arising out of
this Act, nor shall it be binding or conclusive except as
provided in this Act, nor shall it constitute res judicata,
regardless of whether the actions were between the same or

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related parties or involved the same facts.
C. Any officer or employee of this State, any officer or
employee of any entity authorized to obtain information
pursuant to this Section, and any agent of this State or of
such entity who, except with authority of the Director under
this Section, shall disclose information shall be guilty of a
Class B misdemeanor and shall be disqualified from holding any
appointment or employment by the State.
D. An individual or his duly authorized agent may be
supplied with information from records only to the extent
necessary for the proper presentation of his claim for benefits
or with his existing or prospective rights to benefits.
Discretion to disclose this information belongs solely to the
Director and is not subject to a release or waiver by the
individual. Notwithstanding any other provision to the
contrary, an individual or his or her duly authorized agent may
be supplied with a statement of the amount of benefits paid to
the individual during the 18 months preceding the date of his
or her request.
E. An employing unit may be furnished with information,
only if deemed by the Director as necessary to enable it to
fully discharge its obligations or safeguard its rights under
the Act. Discretion to disclose this information belongs solely
to the Director and is not subject to a release or waiver by
the employing unit.
F. The Director may furnish any information that he may

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deem proper to any public officer or public agency of this or
any other State or of the federal government dealing with:
1. the administration of relief,
2. public assistance,
3. unemployment compensation,
4. a system of public employment offices,
5. wages and hours of employment, or
6. a public works program.
The Director may make available to the Illinois Workers'
Compensation Commission information regarding employers for
the purpose of verifying the insurance coverage required under
the Workers' Compensation Act and Workers' Occupational
Diseases Act.
G. The Director may disclose information submitted by the
State or any of its political subdivisions, municipal
corporations, instrumentalities, or school or community
college districts, except for information which specifically
identifies an individual claimant.
H. The Director shall disclose only that information
required to be disclosed under Section 303 of the Social
Security Act, as amended, including:
1. any information required to be given the United
States Department of Labor under Section 303(a)(6); and
2. the making available upon request to any agency of
the United States charged with the administration of public
works or assistance through public employment, the name,

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address, ordinary occupation and employment status of each
recipient of unemployment compensation, and a statement of
such recipient's right to further compensation under such
law as required by Section 303(a)(7); and
3. records to make available to the Railroad Retirement
Board as required by Section 303(c)(1); and
4. information that will assure reasonable cooperation
with every agency of the United States charged with the
administration of any unemployment compensation law as
required by Section 303(c)(2); and
5. information upon request and on a reimbursable basis
to the United States Department of Agriculture and to any
State food stamp agency concerning any information
required to be furnished by Section 303(d); and
6. any wage information upon request and on a
reimbursable basis to any State or local child support
enforcement agency required by Section 303(e); and
7. any information required under the income
eligibility and verification system as required by Section
303(f); and
8. information that might be useful in locating an
absent parent or that parent's employer, establishing
paternity or establishing, modifying, or enforcing child
support orders for the purpose of a child support
enforcement program under Title IV of the Social Security
Act upon the request of and on a reimbursable basis to the

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public agency administering the Federal Parent Locator
Service as required by Section 303(h); and
9. information, upon request, to representatives of
any federal, State or local governmental public housing
agency with respect to individuals who have signed the
appropriate consent form approved by the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development and who are applying for or
participating in any housing assistance program
administered by the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development as required by Section 303(i).
I. The Director, upon the request of a public agency of
Illinois, of the federal government or of any other state
charged with the investigation or enforcement of Section 10-5
of the Criminal Code of 2012 (or a similar federal law or
similar law of another State), may furnish the public agency
information regarding the individual specified in the request
as to:
1. the current or most recent home address of the
individual, and
2. the names and addresses of the individual's
employers.
J. Nothing in this Section shall be deemed to interfere
with the disclosure of certain records as provided for in
Section 1706 or with the right to make available to the
Internal Revenue Service of the United States Department of the
Treasury, or the Department of Revenue of the State of

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Illinois, information obtained under this Act.
K. The Department shall make available to the Illinois
Student Assistance Commission, upon request, information in
the possession of the Department that may be necessary or
useful to the Commission in the collection of defaulted or
delinquent student loans which the Commission administers.
L. The Department shall make available to the State
Employees' Retirement System, the State Universities
Retirement System, the Teachers' Retirement System of the State
of Illinois, and the Department of Central Management Services,
Risk Management Division, upon request, information in the
possession of the Department that may be necessary or useful to
the System or the Risk Management Division for the purpose of
determining whether any recipient of a disability benefit from
the System or a workers' compensation benefit from the Risk
Management Division is gainfully employed.
M. This Section shall be applicable to the information
obtained in the administration of the State employment service,
except that the Director may publish or release general labor
market information and may furnish information that he may deem
proper to an individual, public officer or public agency of
this or any other State or the federal government (in addition
to those public officers or public agencies specified in this
Section) as he prescribes by Rule.
N. The Director may require such safeguards as he deems
proper to insure that information disclosed pursuant to this

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Section is used only for the purposes set forth in this
Section.
O. Nothing in this Section prohibits communication with an
individual or entity through unencrypted e-mail or other
unencrypted electronic means as long as the communication does
not contain the individual's or entity's name in combination
with any one or more of the individual's or entity's social
security number; driver's license or State identification
number; account number or credit or debit card number; or any
required security code, access code, or password that would
permit access to further information pertaining to the
individual or entity.
P. Within 30 days after the effective date of this
amendatory Act of 1993 and annually thereafter, the Department
shall provide to the Department of Financial Institutions a
list of individuals or entities that, for the most recently
completed calendar year, report to the Department as paying
wages to workers. The lists shall be deemed confidential and
may not be disclosed to any other person.
Q. The Director shall make available to an elected federal
official the name and address of an individual or entity that
is located within the jurisdiction from which the official was
elected and that, for the most recently completed calendar
year, has reported to the Department as paying wages to
workers, where the information will be used in connection with
the official duties of the official and the official requests

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the information in writing, specifying the purposes for which
it will be used. For purposes of this subsection, the use of
information in connection with the official duties of an
official does not include use of the information in connection
with the solicitation of contributions or expenditures, in
money or in kind, to or on behalf of a candidate for public or
political office or a political party or with respect to a
public question, as defined in Section 1-3 of the Election
Code, or in connection with any commercial solicitation. Any
elected federal official who, in submitting a request for
information covered by this subsection, knowingly makes a false
statement or fails to disclose a material fact, with the intent
to obtain the information for a purpose not authorized by this
subsection, shall be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.
R. The Director may provide to any State or local child
support agency, upon request and on a reimbursable basis,
information that might be useful in locating an absent parent
or that parent's employer, establishing paternity, or
establishing, modifying, or enforcing child support orders.
S. The Department shall make available to a State's
Attorney of this State or a State's Attorney's investigator,
upon request, the current address or, if the current address is
unavailable, current employer information, if available, of a
victim of a felony or a witness to a felony or a person against
whom an arrest warrant is outstanding.
T. The Director shall make available to the Department of

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State Police, a county sheriff's office, or a municipal police
department, upon request, any information concerning the
current address and place of employment or former places of
employment of a person who is required to register as a sex
offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act that may be
useful in enforcing the registration provisions of that Act.
U. The Director shall make information available to the
Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department
of Human Services for the purpose of determining eligibility
for public benefit programs authorized under the Illinois
Public Aid Code and related statutes administered by those
departments, for verifying sources and amounts of income, and
for other purposes directly connected with the administration
of those programs.
V. The Director shall make information available to the
State Board of Elections as may be required by an agreement the
State Board of Elections has entered into with a multi-state
voter registration list maintenance system.
(Source: P.A. 97-621, eff. 11-18-11; 97-689, eff. 6-14-12;
97-1150, eff. 1-25-13; 98-1171, eff. 6-1-15.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.