By Mary O’KEEFE

According to the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), California’s unemployment rate decreased 0.2 percentage points to 8.3% in March. California has regained almost 44% of the 2,714,800 total non-farm jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the most recent numbers; April’s numbers are scheduled for release on May 21.

For many of those who are still unemployed or recently applied for unemployment insurance in California, dealing with EDD has become a full time job.

Those interviewed for this article did not want to share their identity for fear it would affect their application process, which in itself is a troubling issue. The complaints shared included their attempts to get information regarding their application; their approval for funding but not receiving funds; and finding someone who can answer any questions. In addition, a few interviewed had attempted to report fraud concerning unemployment but cannot do so either online or via phone.

One person interviewed described his ability to finally get through after about four hours of attempts each day for five days.

CVW reached out to EDD on several occasions via email; the spokespeople for EDD are “teleworking” so phone contact is not available. Each time the response has been to either find the answer on its website or to call the EDD offices. Their website dashboard shows a very impressive response time; however, it does not seem to coincide with the experiences of those interviewed.

In addition, the office staff of Assemblymember Laura Friedman has been inundated over the last several months with requests from constituents who need EDD assistance.

Currently Friedman’s office staff is working on so many of these cases it is taking up nearly all of the time of the five-member district staff. They, too, are receiving the same complaints, which include receiving EDD approval but not receiving any funds, according to Friedman’s spokesman.

Friedman has met with EDD and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff to discuss these issues.

Gov. Newsom stated in a press conference that his office is making “bold commitments” in terms of benefits and management upgrades to address the backlog.

“We saw a 35% reduction in wait time,” he said.

He added the state has hired 400 individuals for the system in the last 30 days.

In addition, there have been over 100 staffers added to the legislative office to help with the backlog.

Communication with the EDD has been an issue in the past. In August and September 2020, reports were made by people receiving sometimes hundreds of letters in the mail from the EDD. The letters would be addressed to various people but sent to the same address. One family CVW reported about received a total of 182 letters from EDD at their home. When the family attempted to report the issue to law enforcement they were told, “We don’t handle it.” CVW received information from EDD that those who found envelopes like these that had been mailed in error to them to go online and report the fraud; however, the form provided did not cover that particular type of fraud. When calling the fraud hotline, there were no specific instructions on how to report the fraud.

CVW made several attempts to contact EDD at various times for over two weeks; after going through the prompts for filing a claim, looking at an existing claim or reporting fraud received, a recorded voice each time intoned: “Your call cannot be completed at this time; please try again later.”

For more information, go to the Viewpoints section on page 9 of this issue to read more information from Assemblymember Laura Friedman.