Michele Evermore, an expert with the National Employment Law Project, answers questions from Eyewitness News viewers about getting unemployment benefits through California s EDD.
Millions of unemployed workers plights are now crystallized in the state auditor s scathing report on the disaster at EDD when efficiency was needed most. The EDD has known for over a decade that they have these problems and they did not fix their operations, said State Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R - Fresno).
The auditor s report found EDD could not automatically process half the claims. Many required a manual review of items like ID verification.
It left hundreds of thousands of workers struggling for benefits - unable to reach anyone at the call center. It happened to Ima Holcomb in Calistoga.
CA EDD admits that as much as $31 billion in unemployment funds were stolen from California taxpayers in 2020, nearly four times more than previously estimated.
It left hundreds of thousands of workers struggling for benefits - unable to reach anyone at the call center. It happened to Ima Holcomb in Calistoga. We are currently experiencing more calls than we can answer, and are unable to assist you at this time, she recalls hearing over the phone.
The report said less than one percent of workers reached an agent during the surge in claims.
The audit said EDD started waiving eligibility checks to speed up the claims. That opened the door for rampant fraud. EDD admitted it has paid at least $11 billion dollars to fraudsters - but it s possible another $20 billion also was paid to scammers.
As over a million of unemployed workers in California are frozen out of their unemployment benefit accounts, a cybercriminal reveals just how easy it is to get the documents to fool the EDD.
Lamp kept uploading her passport and Social Security card but the website wouldn t accept them. She d have to wait for a live agent. I m telling you it s blowing my mind. It still says more than five hours, she said of her wait time.
No matter how much time went by, she said, the system kept saying her wait was more than five hours.
She ended up staying on hold all day, and into the next day.