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Florida Senate
-
2026
SB 216
By
Senator McClain
9-00402-26 2026216__
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 disqualifies claimants from reemployment assistance
7 benefits; creating s. 443.1112, F.S.; requiring the
8 department to verify claimants’ identities before
9 paying benefits; requiring the department to cross
10 check certain information; providing duties of the
11 department; requiring the department to maintain a web
12 page for a specified purpose and to notify employers
13 each year of the web page; providing annual reporting
14 requirements; providing an effective date.
15
16 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
17
18 Section 1.
This act may be cited as the “Promoting Work,
19
Deterring Fraud Act of 2026.”
20 Section 2. Subsection (2) of section 443.101, Florida
21 Statutes, is amended to read:
22 443.101 Disqualification for benefits.—An individual shall
23 be disqualified for benefits:
24 (2) If the Department of Commerce finds that the individual
25 has failed without good cause to apply for available suitable
26 work,
including contacting the required number of prospective
27
employers per week for any week of unemployment claimed in the
28
benefit year in accordance with s. 443.091, to appear on three
29
or more occasions for a scheduled job interview without
30
notifying the prospective employer of the need to cancel or
31
reschedule the interview, to
accept suitable work when offered
32 to him or her,
to
or
return to the individual’s customary self
33 employment when directed by the department
, or to return to
34
employment when recalled to work by the individual’s employer
35
after a temporary layoff
, the disqualification continues for the
36
next
full period of unemployment
next ensuing
after he or she
37 failed without good cause to apply for available suitable work,
38 accept suitable work, or return to his or her customary
39
employment or
self-employment, and until the individual has
40 earned income of at least 17 times his or her weekly benefit
41 amount. The department shall by rule adopt criteria
to implement
42
this subsection, including
for determining the “suitability of
43 work,”
or “suitable work,”
as used in this section. In
44 developing these rules, the department shall consider the
45 duration of a claimant’s unemployment in determining the
46 suitability of work and the suitability of proposed rates of
47 compensation for available work. Further, after an individual
48 has received 25 weeks of benefits in a single year, suitable
49 work is a job that pays the minimum wage and is 120 percent or
50 more of the weekly benefit amount the individual is drawing.
51 (a) In determining whether
or not any
work is suitable for
52 an individual, the department shall consider the degree of risk
53 to the individual’s health, safety, and morals; the individual’s
54 physical fitness, prior training, experience, prior earnings,
55 length of unemployment, and prospects for securing local work in
56 his or her customary occupation; and the distance of the
57 available work from his or her residence.
58 (b) Notwithstanding
any other provisions of
this chapter,
59 work is not deemed suitable and benefits may not be denied to
60 any otherwise eligible individual for refusing to accept new
61 work under any of the following conditions:
62 1. The position offered is vacant due directly to a strike,
63 lockout, or other labor dispute.
64 2. The wages, hours, or other conditions of the work
65 offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than
66 those prevailing for similar work in the locality.
67 3. As a condition of being employed, the individual is
68 required to join a company union or to resign from or refrain
69 from joining any bona fide labor organization.
70 (c) If the department finds that an individual was rejected
71 for offered employment as the direct result of a positive,
72 confirmed drug test required as a condition of employment, the
73 individual is disqualified for refusing to accept an offer of
74 suitable work.
75 Section 3. Section 443.1112, Florida Statutes, is created
76 to read:
77
443.1112
Verification of reemployment assistance benefit
78
eligibility; detection of fraud.—
79
(1)
The Department of Commerce shall verify the identity of
80
each claimant who applies for reemployment assistance benefits
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before paying any benefits to that individual.
82
(2)
For the initial claim for benefits made by a claimant
83
and as necessary to verify a claimant’s eligibility for
84
benefits, the department shall cross-check the information
85
contained in the claim with information in the database of the
86
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program
87
established by the United States Bureau of Citizenship and
88
Immigration Services.
89
(3)
For every 2 weeks that a claimant makes a claim for
90
benefits, including the initial claim for benefits, to verify a
91
claimant’s eligibility for benefits, the department shall cross
92
check the information contained in the claim to make sure that
93
the claimant is:
94
(a)
Living.
95
(b)
Not incarcerated.
96
(c)
Not already employed.
97
(4)
The department shall do all of the following:
98
(a)
Investigate any claim in this state associated with a
99
mailing address, a bank account, an e-mail address, a telephone
100
number, or an Internet protocol address that is also associated
101
with another existing claim for reemployment assistance benefits
102
in this state or another state and verify that the claim in this
103
state is legitimate and not fraudulent before paying any
104
benefits for the claim.
105
(b)
Scrutinize any claim in this state filed from a foreign
106
Internet protocol address before paying any benefits for the
107
claim.
108
(c)
Work with the United States Department of Labor, the
109
United States Department of Justice, other state workforce
110
agencies, the Department of Law Enforcement, the state
111
attorneys, or the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor to share
112
information related to fraudulent claims or attempted fraudulent
113
claims to the extent feasible for further investigation and
114
proceedings brought under this chapter.
115
(d)
Maintain a web page through which an individual or an
116
employer may report known or suspected violations of this
117
chapter, including identity theft or fraud. Each year, the
118
department shall notify employers in this state of this web page
119
for reporting violations.
120
(e)
Each year, make available on its website a report
121
identifying the number of fraudulent reemployment assistance
122
claims identified for the previous year, the number of claims
123
not paid due to successful detection of fraudulent intentions,
124
the number of claims and the amount of reemployment assistance
125
benefits paid against claims subsequently identified as
126
fraudulent, the amount of fraudulent overpayments recovered, and
127
the number of fraudulent claims referred for investigation and
128
possible prosecution. The report must also list the sources of
129
information which were used to cross-check claims during the
130
reporting period.
131 Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026.