Skidgel

Opinion of the Court by Jenkins, J.

The In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 12300 et seq.) authorizes certain disabled and elderly Californians to receive in-home services from third parties or family members, paid for with public funds. Under one program option — which we will refer to as the Direct Hiring method — service recipients directly hire their own providers, and the providers are then paid either by the recipients with funds they have received from a public entity or by a public entity itself. We granted review in this case to consider whether, under these circumstances, a provider who is the recipient’s minor child, parent, or spouse is covered by the state’s unemployment insurance program. The Court of Appeal answered this question in the negative, reasoning that sections 631 and 683 of the Unemployment Insurance Code1 exclude such a provider from coverage. (Skidgel v. California Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd. (2018) 24 Cal.App.5th 574, 577–578 (Skidgel).) For reasons that follow, we agree with the Court of Appeal’s conclusion and affirm its judgment.

1 All further unlabeled statutory references are to the Unemployment…