Senate Bill No. 1219 proposes an amendment to the existing law regarding unemployment compensation fraud by increasing the financial threshold that determines whether such fraud is classified as a misdemeanor or a felony. Specifically, the bill raises the threshold from $500 to $2,000. Under the current law, a fraudulent act involving unemployment benefits that amounts to $500 or less is categorized as a class A misdemeanor, while amounts exceeding $500 are classified as a class D felony. The new legislation will change these classifications to a class A misdemeanor for amounts of $2,000 or less and a class D felony for amounts exceeding $2,000.

The bill also includes changes in legal language, replacing references to "himself or herself" with "such person" and "his or her" with "such person's" to ensure gender-neutral language. The effective date for this amendment is set for October 1, 2025. The fiscal impact of this bill is expected to be negligible, as it is not anticipated to significantly increase workloads or result in additional costs for the state or municipalities, given the rarity of such fraud cases in recent years.