Florida Senate - 2025 CS for SB 1238
By the Committee on Commerce and Tourism; and Senator Rodriguez
577-03067-25 20251238c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to verification of reemployment
3 assistance benefit eligibility; providing a short
4 title; amending s. 443.101, F.S.; revising
5 circumstances under which the Department of Commerce
6 may disqualify claimants from receiving reemployment
7 assistance benefits; creating s. 443.1112, F.S.;
8 requiring the department to verify claimants’
9 identities before paying reemployment assistance
10 benefits; requiring the department to cross-check
11 certain information on a specified schedule; providing
12 duties of the department; requiring the department to
13 maintain a web page and an e-mail address for a
14 specified purpose and to notify employers each year of
15 the web page and e-mail address; requiring the
16 department to annually make certain information
17 available on its website; providing construction;
18 amending s. 443.091, F.S.; conforming a provision to
19 changes made by the act; providing an effective date.
20
21 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
22
23 Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Promoting Work,
24 Deterring Fraud Act of 2025.”
25 Section 2. Subsection (2) of section 443.101, Florida
26 Statutes, is amended to read:
27 443.101 Disqualification for benefits.—An individual shall
28 be disqualified for benefits:
29 (2) If the Department of Commerce finds that the individual
30 has failed without good cause to apply for available suitable
31 work; to appear, on three or more occasions, for a scheduled job
32 interview without notifying the prospective employer of the need
33 to cancel or reschedule the interview; to, accept suitable work
34 within 2 business days when offered to him or her; to, or return
35 to the individual’s customary self-employment when directed by
36 the department; or to return to employment when recalled to work
37 by the individual’s employer after a temporary layoff, the
38 disqualification continues for the full period of unemployment
39 next ensuing after he or she failed without good cause to apply
40 for available suitable work; to appear, on three or more
41 occasions, for a scheduled job interview without notifying the
42 prospective employer of the need to cancel or reschedule the
43 interview; to, accept suitable work;, or to return to his or her
44 customary employment or self-employment, and until the
45 individual has earned income of at least 17 times his or her
46 weekly benefit amount. The department shall by rule adopt
47 criteria to implement this subsection, including for determining
48 the “suitability of work,” as used in this section. In
49 developing these rules, the department shall consider the
50 duration of a claimant’s unemployment in determining the
51 suitability of work and the suitability of proposed rates of
52 compensation for available work. Further, after an individual
53 has received 25 weeks of benefits in a single year, suitable
54 work is a job that pays the minimum wage and is 120 percent or
55 more of the weekly benefit amount the individual is drawing.
56 (a) In determining whether or not any work is suitable for
57 an individual, the department shall consider the degree of risk
58 to the individual’s health, safety, and morals; the individual’s
59 physical fitness, prior training, experience, prior earnings,
60 length of unemployment, and prospects for securing local work in
61 his or her customary occupation; and the distance of the
62 available work from his or her residence.
63 (b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter,
64 work is not deemed suitable and benefits may not be denied to
65 any otherwise eligible individual for refusing to accept new
66 work under any of the following conditions:
67 1. The position offered is vacant due directly to a strike,
68 lockout, or other labor dispute.
69 2. The wages, hours, or other conditions of the work
70 offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than
71 those prevailing for similar work in the locality.
72 3. As a condition of being employed, the individual is
73 required to join a company union or to resign from or refrain
74 from joining any bona fide labor organization.
75 (c) If the department finds that an individual was rejected
76 for offered employment as the direct result of a positive,
77 confirmed drug test required as a condition of employment, the
78 individual is disqualified for refusing to accept an offer of
79 suitable work.
80 Section 3. Section 443.1112, Florida Statutes, is created
81 to read:
82 443.1112 Verification of reemployment assistance benefit
83 eligibility; detection of fraud.—
84 (1) The Department of Commerce shall verify the identity of
85 each claimant who applies for reemployment assistance benefits
86 before paying any benefits to that individual.
87 (2) For the initial claim for benefits made by a claimant
88 and as necessary to verify a claimant’s eligibility for
89 benefits, the department shall cross-check the information
90 contained in the claim with information in the database of the
91 Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program
92 established by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and
93 Immigration Services.
94 (3) For every 2 weeks that a claimant makes a claim for
95 benefits, including the initial claim for benefits, to verify a
96 claimant’s eligibility for benefits, the department shall cross
97 check the information contained in the claim to make sure that
98 the claimant is:
99 (a) Living.
100 (b) Not incarcerated.
101 (c) Not already employed.
102 (d) Not filing fraudulent or duplicate claims.
103 (4) The department shall do all of the following:
104 (a) Investigate any claim in this state associated with a
105 mailing address, a bank account, an e-mail address, a telephone
106 number, or an Internet protocol address that is also associated
107 with another existing claim for reemployment assistance benefits
108 in this state or another state and verify that the claim in this
109 state is legitimate and not fraudulent before paying any
110 benefits for the claim.
111 (b) Scrutinize any claim in this state filed from a foreign
112 Internet protocol address before paying any benefits for the
113 claim.
114 (c) Refer any suspected fraudulent or attempted fraudulent
115 claim identified by the department to the Department of Legal
116 Affairs and the state attorney of the judicial circuit in which
117 the suspected fraudulent claim originated for further
118 investigation and potential prosecution.
119 (d) Maintain a web page and an e-mail address through which
120 an individual or an employer may report known or suspected
121 violations of this chapter, including identity theft, fraud, or
122 reasons for which a claimant would be disqualified for benefits
123 under s. 443.101, including, but not limited to, failing to
124 appear for a previously scheduled job interview without
125 notifying the prospective employer of the need to cancel or
126 reschedule the interview or failing to accept suitable work
127 within 2 business days when offered to him or her. Each year,
128 the department shall notify employers in this state of this web
129 page and e-mail address for reporting violations.
130 (e) Annually make available on its website a report
131 identifying the number of fraudulent reemployment assistance
132 claims identified for the previous year, the number of claims
133 not paid due to successful detection of fraudulent intentions,
134 the number of claims and the amount of reemployment assistance
135 benefits paid against claims subsequently identified as
136 fraudulent, the amount of fraudulent overpayments recovered, and
137 the number of fraudulent claims referred for investigation and
138 possible prosecution. The report must also list the sources of
139 information that were used to cross-check claims during the
140 reporting period.
141 (5) This section may not be construed as limiting the
142 ability of the department to adopt additional mechanisms and
143 strategies designed to limit waste, fraud, and abuse in the
144 reemployment assistance program.
145 Section 4. Paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of section
146 443.091, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
147 443.091 Benefit eligibility conditions.—
148 (1) An unemployed individual is eligible to receive
149 benefits for any week only if the Department of Commerce finds
150 that:
151 (d) She or he is able to work and is available for work. In
152 order to assess eligibility for a claimed week of unemployment,
153 the department shall develop criteria to determine a claimant’s
154 ability to work and availability for work. A claimant must be
155 actively seeking work in order to be considered available for
156 work. This means engaging in systematic and sustained efforts to
157 find work, including contacting at least five prospective
158 employers for each week of unemployment claimed. The department
159 may require the claimant to provide proof of such efforts to the
160 one-stop career center as part of reemployment services. A
161 claimant’s proof of work search efforts may not include the same
162 prospective employer at the same location in 3 consecutive
163 weeks, unless the employer has indicated since the time of the
164 initial contact that the employer is hiring. The department
165 shall conduct random reviews of work search information provided
166 by claimants. As an alternative to contacting at least five
167 prospective employers for any week of unemployment claimed, a
168 claimant may, for that same week, report in person to a one-stop
169 career center to meet with a representative of the center and
170 access reemployment services of the center. The center shall
171 keep a record of the services or information provided to the
172 claimant and shall provide the records to the department upon
173 request by the department. However:
174 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph or
175 paragraphs (b) and (e), an otherwise eligible individual may not
176 be denied benefits for any week because she or he is in training
177 with the approval of the department, or by reason of s.
178 443.101(2) relating to failure to apply for, failure to appear
179 for an interview for, or refusal to accept, suitable work.
180 Training may be approved by the department in accordance with
181 criteria prescribed by rule. A claimant’s eligibility during
182 approved training is contingent upon satisfying eligibility
183 conditions prescribed by rule.
184 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an
185 otherwise eligible individual who is in training approved under
186 s. 236(a)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, may not be
187 determined ineligible or disqualified for benefits due to
188 enrollment in such training or because of leaving work that is
189 not suitable employment to enter such training. As used in this
190 subparagraph, the term “suitable employment” means work of a
191 substantially equal or higher skill level than the worker’s past
192 adversely affected employment, as defined for purposes of the
193 Trade Act of 1974, as amended, the wages for which are at least
194 80 percent of the worker’s average weekly wage as determined for
195 purposes of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended.
196 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, an
197 otherwise eligible individual may not be denied benefits for any
198 week because she or he is before any state or federal court
199 pursuant to a lawfully issued summons to appear for jury duty.
200 4. Union members who customarily obtain employment through
201 a union hiring hall may satisfy the work search requirements of
202 this paragraph by reporting daily to their union hall.
203 5. The work search requirements of this paragraph do not
204 apply to persons who are unemployed as a result of a temporary
205 layoff or who are claiming benefits under an approved short-time
206 compensation plan as provided in s. 443.1116.
207 6. In small counties as defined in s. 120.52(19), a
208 claimant engaging in systematic and sustained efforts to find
209 work must contact at least three prospective employers for each
210 week of unemployment claimed.
211 7. The work search requirements of this paragraph do not
212 apply to persons required to participate in reemployment
213 services under paragraph (e).
214 Section 5. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.