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California Pushes Pause on Unemployment Claims for Two Weeks
California’s EDD says it has stopped accepting new unemployment claims for the next two weeks in an effort to prevent fraud and reduce a big backlog. The announcement over the weekend followed reports from the state’s Strike Team established by Governor Gavin Newsom to create a blueprint for improvements and to modernize technology systems.
EDD Director Sharon Hilliard sent a letter to the Governor detailing the immediate actions EDD will implement, including a two-week reset period starting on Sept. 19th that is expected to help expedite new claimant, payments, reduce fraud and tackle backlog issues moving forward.
Currently, the EDD has a backlog of nearly 600,000 Californians who have applied for unemployment more than 21 days ago, though those claims have not yet been processed, and an estimated 1 million cases where individuals received payments but subsequently modified their claim and thus are awaiting resolution.
Among the actions EDD is taking include the implementation of ID.me, a new identity verification tool to fortify the application process against fraud. Additionally, to work through the backlog, the most experienced EDD staff will be redirected from phone lines and training to working through the oldest and most complex claims. Also, a portion of new staff will be redirected to processing mail and email, as well as calling claimants for any additional information needed to help resolve issues on those older cases.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser
- ◦Economy
