Senate Bill 456 Summary

• Changes unemployment insurance surcharge allocation by crediting unused surcharge amounts against total benefits charged to the fund rather than crediting proportionally to individual employers' experience accounts.

• Establishes three categories of unemployment benefit overpayments with different statute of limitations: overpayments from knowing false statements (no time limit), overpayments from failure to report wages (3 years), and all other overpayments (4 years).

• Creates administrative income withholding procedures allowing the Department of Workforce Development to require employers to withhold wages from individuals with established overpayments, with limitations modeled after garnishment laws.

• Prohibits employers from using income withholding as basis for refusing to hire, discharging, or disciplining employees, with penalties up to $1,000 per violation and civil liability for non-compliance.

• Modifies benefit eligibility requirements to require individuals to earn wages in at least 8 weeks equaling 8 times their weekly benefit amount after a disqualification period, and establishes unsatisfactory attendance as just cause for discharge if employer lacks attendance policy.

• Expands criminal jurisdiction to include counties where Internet or computer network access was made or where computer equipment was located for unemployment insurance fraud cases.

• Effective July 1, 2015.