These positions include 130.9 Customer Service Representatives to address an increase in the number of calls by claimants associated with completing the claim identity and/or monetary requirements processes and for anticipated increases in time to verify what counts as an acceptable activity under the provisions of the bill. For example, currently UI staff conduct random audits of work search logs that result in 1,300 logs needing to have one log activity verified by staff each week. Under the provisions of the bill, 100% of work search activities listed on the log would need to be verified which would be an additional four activities investigated per log per week. Over a 50 week period, this would result in the need for 260,000 additional verifications under the provisions of the bill.
According to TWC, the agency anticipates receiving an average of 900,000 UI claims annually from fiscal years 2026 through 2030. Under current law, approximately 30 percent of these claims, or 270,000, would be sent for identity verification. Under the provisions of the bill, 100 percent of these claims would be sent for identity verification with an estimated 63,000, or 10 percent, of these claims each fiscal year being appealed following a denial of benefits. To address this increase in the number of appeals, this estimate assumes an additional 42.4 Hearing Officer II positions, 49.8 Administrative Assistant II positions, and 32.2 Attorney II positions would be needed for caseload increases that includes a hearing and case processing for both lower and upper-level appeals.
Finally, an additional 17.0 information technology support staff would be needed to implement modifications to the unemployment insurance mainframe and online Unemployment Benefits system application to alter existing requirements for work search activities, increase the minimum benefits wage credits requirement, raising the minimum earnings requirement between benefits periods, establishing a new authentication mechanism for claimant identity verification and cross-checking claims against multiple state and federal databases.