Thousands of Californians face more delays in getting unemployment benefits
KGO
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SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (KGO) Desperate. That s how you might describe the situation for hundreds of thousands of jobless whose benefits remain stuck on hold.
Critics blame an antiquated EDD computer system for sucking many benefit decisions down a black hole. People like China Rathino end up paying the price. They just got out of school. So this is India, says Rathino, introducing one of her children.
India isn t a big fan of distance learning. It s easy to fall asleep, India told us.
7-year-old Faye doesn t like being home for school either, although she recently received a visit from the Tooth Fairy. And little sister Juliette isn t bashful about letting everyone know she s three.
Representatives from EDD and Bank of America addressed a State Assembly hearing to shed light on the scope of fraud within California s unemployment program.
Assembly Bill 74: From Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). Provides claimants with the option to receive their unemployment payments (as well as disability and paid family leave) via direct deposit. Currently, California is only one of three states that do not provide direct deposit; instead, the state is contracted with Bank of America to send payments to a debit card. However, complaints have mounted that Bank of America has failed to protect its cardholders, leaving them vulnerable to fraud, and to having their accounts frozen by the bank if they detect suspicious activity leaving cardholders without access to their funds as they try to navigate the bank s appeals process.
Unemployment in California: EDD official talks fraudulent claims, busy phone lines, identity verification
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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) A spokesperson for California s embattled Employment Development Department joined ABC7 s program Getting Answers on Thursday to discuss the problems millions of Californians are facing as they try to apply for benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fraudulent Claims
A state audit released last week revealed the EDD likely paid out at least $10 billion in fraudulent claims between March and December another hit to the troubled department.
Spokesperson Loree Levy addressed the millions of fraudulent claims that we re paid out citing organized crime rings and the treasure trove of information available from data breaches on the dark web.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) A California State Assembly budget subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday with California s EDD and its banking partner, Bank of America, to gain clarity on the massive fraud plaguing the program.
Faiz Ahmad, Head of Global Transaction Services at Bank of America, noted in his opening remarks that unemployment insurance fraud is nationwide, and not unique to California. The size and scale of the California program attracted substantial fraud, including criminals who are fraudulently attempting to claim benefits. It is our assessment that there is sophisticated criminal network activity involved in this, as is being assessed by a third party specialist as well, said Ahmad.
How did California handle its unemployment crisis compared to other states? The amount of unemployment funds stolen from California taxpayers in 2020 may total more than $8 billion four times higher than estimated just one month ago.
A Bank of America representative told him: There was no investigation done because once we received the claim, EDD gets the alert there is a claim going on. They automatically close it, saying there is fraud risk, fraud risk so they don t give us time to actually work the claim.
The Bank of America representative offered multiple times during the call to reopen the claim; still Bolik was frustrated. On the recording, he attempts to clarify what he s hearing.