Excerpted from LAist
By David Wagner
After months without aid from EDD, Vargas took a low-paying job as a delivery driver. She uses the revenue to help pay for childcare so her son can participate in remote kindergarten. She's still seeking retroactive unemployment benefits that could amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
Desperate for help, in September she reached out to her state representative, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris. Her office was able to get an EDD representative to address problems with Vargas' claim, but the case still isn't resolved.
Petrie-Norris said constituents have been contacting lawmakers' offices about unemployment problems far more than any other issue.
"Every day, we hear from literally thousands of desperate Californians who are in dire straits," Petrie-Norris said. "They're not sure how they're going to pay their bills, make their rent or feed their kids. It's heartbreaking."
Lawmakers have proposed a wave of reforms for EDD, including requirements to provide services in recipients' preferred languages, and the creation of an Office of the Claimant Advocate.
Petrie-Norris said these changes could help prevent future catastrophes, but the agency needs to make itself more accessible to those facing immediate financial ruin.
"The bottom line is that EDD is failing California," she said.
In response to LAist's reporting, an EDD spokesperson sent an emailed statement saying:
The priorities for EDD are keeping benefits out of the hands of criminals and get them into the hands of eligible Californians as quickly as possible, modernizing EDD systems to expedite claims, and improving the EDD customer experience.
EDD officials say they've been helping applicants who are stuck in limbo. They say the agency has now resolved all of the 1.6 million backlogged claims outlined in a September report from the Governor's EDD strike team. The department is planning to expand services for those with limited English proficiency, and has hired the fraud consulting service Accenture in an effort to crack down on claims from criminals.