Layoffs: From Unemployment Benefits to Health Insurance, the Steps to Take ASAP
Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds
'I've Been Contributing': Undocumented Workers Are Key to California's Economy. A New Bill Would Give Them Unemployment Benefits
Is California's Beleaguered Jobless Benefits Agency Ready for a Recession?
Why Are California Unemployment Checks So Hard to Get? New Report Has Ideas
California's Undocumented Workers Would Get Unemployment Benefits Under New Bill
EDD Begins Punitive Approach by Forcing Some Recipients to Pay Back Their Unemployment Benefits
California's Unemployment Fraud Balloons to $20 Billion
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She's formerly the host of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/pop/category/the-cooler/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Cooler\u003c/a> podcast.","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2d8d6765f186e64c798cf7f0c8088a41?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"teacupinthebay","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"arts","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"news","roles":["administrator"]},{"site":"pop","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"futureofyou","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"about","roles":["administrator"]},{"site":"mindshift","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"bayareabites","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"stateofhealth","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"science","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"food","roles":["contributor"]},{"site":"forum","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"perspectives","roles":["administrator"]}],"headData":{"title":"Carly Severn | KQED","description":"Senior Editor, Audience News ","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2d8d6765f186e64c798cf7f0c8088a41?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2d8d6765f186e64c798cf7f0c8088a41?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/carlysevern"},"fjhabvala":{"type":"authors","id":"8659","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"8659","found":true},"name":"Farida Jhabvala Romero","firstName":"Farida","lastName":"Jhabvala Romero","slug":"fjhabvala","email":"fjhabvala@kqed.org","display_author_email":true,"staff_mastheads":["news"],"title":"KQED Contributor","bio":"\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farida Jhabvala Romero is a Labor Correspondent for KQED. She previously covered immigration. Farida was \u003ca href=\"https://www.ccnma.org/2022-most-influential-latina-journalists\">named\u003c/a> one of the 10 Most Influential Latina Journalists in California in 2022 by the California Chicano News Media Association. Her work has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California), as well as a national and regional Edward M. Murrow Award for the collaborative reporting projects “Dangerous Air” and “Graying California.” \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before joining KQED, Farida worked as a producer at Radio Bilingüe, a national public radio network. Farida earned her master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University.\u003c/span>","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c3ab27c5554b67b478f80971e515aa02?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"FaridaJhabvala","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/faridajhabvala/","sites":[{"site":"news","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"stateofhealth","roles":["author"]}],"headData":{"title":"Farida Jhabvala Romero | KQED","description":"KQED Contributor","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c3ab27c5554b67b478f80971e515aa02?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c3ab27c5554b67b478f80971e515aa02?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/fjhabvala"}},"breakingNewsReducer":{},"campaignFinanceReducer":{},"firebase":{"requesting":{},"requested":{},"timestamps":{},"data":{},"ordered":{},"auth":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"authError":null,"profile":{"isLoaded":false,"isEmpty":true},"listeners":{"byId":{},"allIds":[]},"isInitializing":false,"errors":[]},"navBarReducer":{"navBarId":"news","fullView":true,"showPlayer":false},"navMenuReducer":{"menus":[{"key":"menu1","items":[{"name":"News","link":"/","type":"title"},{"name":"Politics","link":"/politics"},{"name":"Science","link":"/science"},{"name":"Education","link":"/educationnews"},{"name":"Housing","link":"/housing"},{"name":"Immigration","link":"/immigration"},{"name":"Criminal Justice","link":"/criminaljustice"},{"name":"Silicon Valley","link":"/siliconvalley"},{"name":"Forum","link":"/forum"},{"name":"The California Report","link":"/californiareport"}]},{"key":"menu2","items":[{"name":"Arts & Culture","link":"/arts","type":"title"},{"name":"Critics’ Picks","link":"/thedolist"},{"name":"Cultural Commentary","link":"/artscommentary"},{"name":"Food & Drink","link":"/food"},{"name":"Bay Area Hip-Hop","link":"/bayareahiphop"},{"name":"Rebel Girls","link":"/rebelgirls"},{"name":"Arts Video","link":"/artsvideos"}]},{"key":"menu3","items":[{"name":"Podcasts","link":"/podcasts","type":"title"},{"name":"Bay Curious","link":"/podcasts/baycurious"},{"name":"Rightnowish","link":"/podcasts/rightnowish"},{"name":"The Bay","link":"/podcasts/thebay"},{"name":"On Our Watch","link":"/podcasts/onourwatch"},{"name":"Mindshift","link":"/podcasts/mindshift"},{"name":"Consider This","link":"/podcasts/considerthis"},{"name":"Political Breakdown","link":"/podcasts/politicalbreakdown"}]},{"key":"menu4","items":[{"name":"Live Radio","link":"/radio","type":"title"},{"name":"TV","link":"/tv","type":"title"},{"name":"Events","link":"/events","type":"title"},{"name":"For Educators","link":"/education","type":"title"},{"name":"Support KQED","link":"/support","type":"title"},{"name":"About","link":"/about","type":"title"},{"name":"Help Center","link":"https://kqed-helpcenter.kqed.org/s","type":"title"}]}]},"pagesReducer":{},"postsReducer":{"stream_live":{"type":"live","id":"stream_live","audioUrl":"https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio","title":"Live Stream","excerpt":"Live Stream information currently unavailable.","link":"/radio","featImg":"","label":{"name":"KQED Live","link":"/"}},"stream_kqedNewscast":{"type":"posts","id":"stream_kqedNewscast","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1","title":"KQED Newscast","featImg":"","label":{"name":"88.5 FM","link":"/"}},"news_11949192":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11949192","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11949192","score":null,"sort":[1705007435000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"layoffs-unemployment-benefits-health-insurance-calfresh","title":"Layoffs: From Unemployment Benefits to Health Insurance, the Steps to Take ASAP","publishDate":1705007435,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Layoffs: From Unemployment Benefits to Health Insurance, the Steps to Take ASAP | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>This guide is part of the KQED News series \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/what-to-do-after-a-layoff\">What to Do After a Layoff.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing what to do when you get laid off can feel like a daunting prospect — especially if losing your job came as a total shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve compiled a list of the initial steps to take after a layoff, to ensure you’re in as secure a place as possible. Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#unemploymentbenefits\">Applying for unemployment benefits\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#healthinsurance\">Keeping your health insurance\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#otherbenefits\">Other benefits you might not know you’re eligible for\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>… Or keep reading. As with the instructions for assembling furniture, you might find it helpful to read all this advice start to finish before you embark on these applications — to be prepared for any bumps you might encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Three tips to making applying for benefits after a layoff easier\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your local government may have staff to help you do this\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many cities and counties have their own offices, staff or programs specifically designed for people in your situation right now — which often have physical offices you can visit, or hotlines to call to ask a person your questions. These kinds of local resources can be particularly helpful in navigating the various benefits you could be entitled to, and aiding in the application processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some offices, like the Department of Benefits and Family Support within \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfhsa.org/\">San Francisco’s Human Services Agency (SFHSA)\u003c/a>, can take your information in one central application and apply for those benefits on your behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having the help of a city staffer trained in these applications could save you a lot of time and stress, says Bart Ellison, program manager at SFHSA’s Workforce Development Division — not just because the process is streamlined, but because you’ll be able to ask these folks questions either in person or over the phone. It’s their job to help you — let them do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Your city or county may also have a program to help you find new employment, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfhsa.org/services/jobs/jobsnow\">SFHSA’s free JobsNOW! program\u003c/a>, which is open to San Francisco job seekers based on their income level, and matches job hunters with roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdss.ca.gov/county-offices\">Find your local social services office in this statewide list.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Don’t feel weird about claiming the benefits you’re owed\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to claiming benefits after a layoff, Ellison wants to remind you that “we all pay for this through our taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s great that if you don’t need it, it’s there. If you do need it, it’s there, and it should be accessed,” Ellison said. “There’s no shame in any of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11957790,news_11970001,news_11967946,news_11968709\" label=\"COVID Resources and Explainers\"]A lot of people also just don’t know about the benefits they could be eligible for, says Ellison, or assume they won’t qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also says that some of the eligible job seekers he and his team work with in San Francisco might fear coming forward to apply if a member of their family is undocumented, because they think it will cause them problems. “We don’t get involved in any of that,” said Ellison. “They should never fear that situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Try to be patient with how long the application process could take\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellison says he and his team “try not to ask a client for documents that we know we already have in the system” — but concedes that sometimes, this process will feel like providing endless documentation. The benefits you’re applying for can be a mix of federal and state funds, so unfortunately “it’s not just as simple as coming in and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Bart, could you sign me up?,’” said Ellison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more you can follow through with any documentation requests, hopefully the faster and smoother your application process will go. “And if you need more time or need help gathering stuff, that is what the eligibility staff are there for,” said Ellison. “They are there to \u003ci>help \u003c/i>you find some of these things. So you just need to kind of be your own advocate, and speak up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Read more layoff advice in our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/what-to-do-after-a-layoff\">What to Do After a Layoff \u003c/a>series\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"unemploymentbenefits\">\u003c/a>Step 1: Apply for unemployment benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been laid off, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/apply/\">apply for unemployment insurance\u003c/a> (UI, also known just as “unemployment”) from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) as soon as you can. Not only could it take at least three weeks to receive any benefits payments from a successful claim, but your claim begins when you first apply for it — not the day you lose your job. So time is of the essence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who can claim unemployment benefits?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re reading this and you \u003ci>chose\u003c/i> to leave your job, you usually aren’t eligible to claim unemployment. The exception to this is if you quit your job for what EDD calls “good cause,” which can include unsafe working conditions or a doctor’s advice. Whether or not you’re eligible to still claim UI in this situation will be determined by a phone interview with an EDD representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When applying for UI, you’ll have to show EDD that you have earned enough wages during the base period of 12 months, are totally or partially unemployed, are “unemployed through no fault of your own,” are physically able to work, are available for work and are ready and willing to accept work immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EDD will also ask you to show that you are “in satisfactory immigration status and authorized to work in the United States” not only now, but when you were earning the wages you’re using to establish your claim. EDD also warns that it will verify your immigration status and work authorization through the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/UI-Calculator/\">calculate the amount of unemployment benefits you can receive using this tool\u003c/a>. Remember that the amount of unemployment you’ll receive is based on your wages over the last 18 months, calculated by EDD from a base period of 12 months within that time — and if you didn’t earn any wages during that period, you won’t qualify for unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/FAQ_-_Eligibility/\">See the EDD’s FAQ on who’s eligible to claim unemployment insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Gather your application information\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During your online application for UI, you’ll be asked to submit a lot of information — and it’s easiest to have all that gathered and ready, rather than trying to track it down in the middle of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to your basic identity information, you’ll need:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your Social Security number\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Your employment authorization information, if you’re not a U.S. citizen\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A photo ID like a passport or driver’s license (for your ID.me account — more below)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>You’ll also need to provide your employment history for the last 18 months, which will include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The names of your previous employers\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Their addresses\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Their phone numbers\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The reason each job ended\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Your gross (total) wages earned\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hours worked per week\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hourly rate of pay\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946480 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at her kitchen table and sifts through documents, looking concerned. Next to her is her opened laptop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During your online application for UI, you’ll be asked to submit a lot of information — and it’s easiest to have all that gathered and ready, rather than trying to track it down in the middle of the process. \u003ccite>(MoMo Productions/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Make the online accounts you’ll need to apply \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To apply for UI for the first time, you’ll need to \u003ca href=\"https://portal.edd.ca.gov/WebApp/Registration\">create a new Benefit Programs Online account\u003c/a>, to enable you to log in and manage your UI claim. (You may already have one of these accounts if you’ve previously applied for UI, disability insurance or paid family leave — in that case, use the same one.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you give an email address as part of your Benefit Programs Online application, make sure you check for any emails from EDD. When you get an email with a link to complete your registration, make sure you click that link within 48 hours of receiving it — otherwise, you’ll have to start the registration process all over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’ve created your Benefit Programs Online account, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">you’ll then register for UI Online\u003c/a>, which is the part of EDD’s online services that allows you to claim and manage your unemployment benefits. Keep reading for how to file your first UI claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll \u003ci>also\u003c/i> need to \u003ca href=\"https://help.id.me/hc/en-us/articles/202673924-Creating-your-ID-me-account\">have an account with ID.me\u003c/a>, the identity verification EDD uses to make sure you’re really you when you’re claiming benefits. You can create your ID.me account before you create your Benefit Programs Online account, or when prompted during the process of creating it. If you’re creating your ID.me account beforehand, just make sure you keep the login details on hand so that you can sign into ID.me when prompted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might consider watching the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moJ1mokMRgc\">EDD’s short instructional video on YouTube about creating these accounts and filing your first UI claim\u003c/a>, so you know what to expect during the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>File your new UI claim\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One big thing: To start using UI Online, you’ll be asked for your “EDD Customer Account Number.” This is a number that’s unique to you, that you can also give instead of your Social Security number on the phone when speaking with an EDD representative. You should receive this number at the preferred email address you gave to EDD — in which case you can start using that EDD Customer Account Number immediately to register for UI Online. It’s also possible to \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/create-account/\">receive this number via mail “10 days after you file your claim,” says EDD\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To file a new claim, \u003ca href=\"https://portal.edd.ca.gov/WebApp/Login?resource_url=https:%2F%2Fportal.edd.ca.gov%2FWebApp%2FHome\">log into your Benefit Programs Online account\u003c/a>, and under “UI Online” select “File New Claim.” Remember you’ll also be asked to briefly sign in to your ID.me account to verify your identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t apply with UI Online 24/7, unfortunately — \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">the site has hours of operation\u003c/a> (located on the File and Manage Account tab), which EDD says are currently (all times Pacific Standard Time):\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sunday: 5 a.m.–8:30 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Monday: 4 a.m.–10 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tuesday–Friday: 2 a.m.–10 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Saturday: 2 a.m.–8 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you need to pause during the UI Online application process, you can hit “Save as draft” to save your application to return to later — unless it’s \u003ci>after \u003c/i>8 p.m. on the Saturday of the week you’ve started the application. If it’s after 8 p.m. on Saturday, or you’re doing this on a Sunday, you won’t be able to save your application, and you will have to start it all over again if you exit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re having issues with UI Online, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">EDD recommends that you call their help line\u003c/a> at (833) 978-2511 and select option 1 after the introduction, available 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday. EDD says that Monday morning before 10 a.m. is their busiest call time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Getting — and keeping — your unemployment benefits\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once your application is complete, be aware of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/After_You_Filed/\">the next steps and further information that EDD will ask of you\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EDD says that \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/After_You_Filed/\">it “takes at least three weeks to process a claim\u003c/a> for unemployment benefits and issue payment to most eligible workers.” You’ll receive a debit card in the mail, which you can activate and then use to access your payments. If you have an old debit card from a previous UI claim, you can still use that one unless it’s expired (in which case you’ll be sent a new one).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep receiving UI after you first apply, you’ll have to certify for your unemployment benefits again every two weeks to continue receiving payments. You can do this online, by phone or through the mail, but EDD says you’ll get your payments faster if you certify online — and you’ll also get email reminders this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of this certification process every two weeks, you’ll have to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t_RgeoPH_g\">attest that you’re actively seeking employment\u003c/a>. This requirement was paused during the pandemic, but has since been reinstated. You’ll also need to \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/jobs_and_training/Caljobs/\">register for CalJOBS and post your resume to the site\u003c/a> to keep receiving your UI benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you start doing any work again after losing your job, it’s very important that you report those earnings when you certify for your UI benefits — because those wages have to be deducted from your unemployment benefits. \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/FAQ-claims/#:~:text=Can%20I%20still%20collect%20benefits,deducted%20from%20your%20unemployment%20payments.\">Read more on how EDD will adjust your UI if you start earning money again while claiming unemployment benefits.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re lucky enough to find a new full-time job, EDD is clear: “If you return to work full time, you will no longer be eligible for unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/certify/\">See EDD’s FAQ on certifying your UI claim every two weeks.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"healthinsurance\">\u003c/a>Step 2: Address your health insurance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If your health insurance was tied to your employment, you need to act swiftly to ensure you’ll still have access to health care after your job ends. The option that’s best for you after your employment ends will depend primarily on how much income your household will now be receiving after you stop working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember that if you’ve applied for unemployment benefits, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">you’ll need to declare that unemployment compensation as income\u003c/a> when applying for health insurance plans. \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-household-information/income/\">Get advice on how to estimate your income on your application.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, check with your employer on when your health benefits will \u003ci>actually\u003c/i> end.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes a severance package will offer a holdover of benefits, advises the San Francisco’s Human Services Agency’s Bart Ellison. Ask very specific questions of your human resources team, if you have one, about when the last day of your health care will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>See if you can go on a family member’s health care.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Losing your health care because of a job loss will likely qualify as a special enrollment period for joining a family member’s plan, if eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have a domestic partner, you may be eligible to join their plan. If you’re under 26 years old, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/young-adults/children-under-26/\">you may be able to join a parent’s plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945872\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11945872 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg\" alt=\"A person with medium-toned skin sits at a wooden table writing on a notepad, surrounded by books. They are wearing a gray t-shirt and have tattooed forearms. We can't see their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Applying for benefits you’re entitled to can be a time-consuming process. \u003ccite>(cottonbro studio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Medi-Cal\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, which offers health care to lower-income folks throughout the state. Eligibility is assessed by your household income, and for many people who qualify, there is no cost of getting health care through Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws passed in the last few years in California mean that \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/youngadultexp.aspx\">undocumented people age 25 or under\u003c/a> and also \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/OlderAdultExpansion.aspx\">undocumented adults age 50 and over\u003c/a> are now eligible to receive Medi-Cal, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Covered California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">Medi-Cal has no limited enrollment period\u003c/a> — you can sign up at any time of year if eligible, including if you’ve lost your job. If your children previously were getting health care through your employer’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurekidsnow.gov/coverage/ca/index.html\">Medi-Cal — or the Children’s Health Insurance Program — may be able to cover them now\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/Medi-CalFAQs2014a.aspx#1\">See the state’s FAQ about Medi-Cal.\u003c/a> Medi-Cal and Covered California use the same application portal at \u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/apply/\">coveredca.com/apply\u003c/a>. Fill out your details, and the site will tell you whether your household income makes you eligible for Medi-Cal or whether you have to choose a private plan from Covered California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Covered California\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Covered California is the state’s marketplace that offers private health insurance plans. Depending on your household income, you may qualify for a free or low-cost health plan through Covered California — or you may be eligible to receive financial help through Covered California that could help cover the costs of your premiums and co-pays. As with Medi-Cal, your household income is going to determine what you’re eligible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving your job for any reason and subsequently \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">losing your job-based health coverage qualifies for a special enrollment period\u003c/a> for signing up for a marketplace health plan. Usually, you’ll get 60 days from the day you lose your coverage to sign up for a health plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/Medi-CalFAQs2014c.aspx#1\">See the state’s FAQ about Covered California.\u003c/a> Remember, Covered California uses the same application portal as Medi-Cal at \u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/apply/\">coveredca.com/apply\u003c/a>. Fill out your details, and the site will tell you whether your household income makes you eligible for Medi-Cal or whether you have to choose a private plan from Covered California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>COBRA\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COBRA stands for the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act — and it’s a way of temporarily keeping health care after you leave a job. Instead of opting to sign up for Medi-Cal or a private health insurance plan through Covered California, you can choose so-called “continuation coverage” of your existing health care plan under COBRA, for a certain period of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Other-Insurance-Protections/cobra_qna\">Health care through COBRA can be applied retroactively\u003c/a>, if you’re unsure about electing it straightaway. The catch: COBRA is expensive, because it’s the health plan your employer was previously paying part or all of — and now, you’re paying all the costs yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Getting back onto health insurance taking a while? Know where your nearest community health center is.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t eligible for coverage through Medi-Cal, but signing up for another health plan is proving challenging right now, you can get low-cost health care at a nearby community health center. Make sure you know where your nearest one is, in case you need access to health care quickly. You can \u003ca href=\"https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/\">use this map to find the closest community health center near you\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>More resources on finding health care after losing your job:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/marketing-blog/health-insurance-for-the-unemployed-from-cobra-to-medi-cal/\">Health Insurance for the Unemployed, from COBRA to Medi-Cal\u003c/a>” (from coveredca.com)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">Health coverage options if you’re unemployed\u003c/a>” (from healthcare.gov)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"otherbenefits\">\u003c/a>Step 3: Don’t forget about other benefits you could be entitled to\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The quickest way to see what benefits you might be eligible for now is to \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">do one application through the state’s BenefitsCal portal\u003c/a>. This site will review your information and tell you what you may qualify for, including Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state says this application will take you between 30 minutes and an hour, and if you make an account you can save your progress and return to the application later, rather than having to start again. One catch: Not all counties in California are using this portal yet. \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">Select your county from the drop-down menu\u003c/a> to see whether you have to use another site — \u003ca href=\"https://www.mybenefitscalwin.org/\">mybenefitscalwin.org\u003c/a> — instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other benefits you could be entitled to may include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CalFresh (SNAP)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalFresh is the state’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food benefits program also known as “food stamps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11943420\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1144627849-1020x680.jpg\"]According to the state’s data from March 2023, over 3 million households use these funds to ensure they have access to food. You can \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">apply through benefitscal.com\u003c/a>, which will also show you all other benefits you’re entitled to, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.getcalfresh.org/\">go direct through getcalfresh.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have at least one child in your home, CalWORKs is a public assistance program that offers cash aid and services to eligible families. \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/\">See if your family is eligible to receive CalWORKs at benefitscal.com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>WIC (Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WIC provides food assistance to lower-income families who have young children or are expecting a new child. Like CalFresh, it’s federally funded, and you can receive WIC benefits on top of your CalFresh benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program is income-based, and is available to pregnant people, plus new parents and grandparents of young children.\u003ca href=\"https://myfamily.wic.ca.gov/Home/HowCanIGetWIC#howToGetWIC\"> See whether you’re eligible for WIC and apply online.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make sure to read the rest of our KQED guides about other steps you can take after a layoff to better support yourself and those who depend on you:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949801/layoffs-how-to-find-a-new-job-jobhunting-tips\">The Best Ways to Find a New Job, According to an Expert\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949674/layoffs-mental-health-lost-job-self-care\">How to Prioritize Your Mental Health After Losing Your Job, From Telling Family to Self-Care\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948895/layoffs-how-to-save-more-money-after-losing-your-job\">How to Save More Money After Losing Your Job\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on May 19, 2023\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Knowing what to do when you get laid off can feel daunting — especially if losing your job came as a shock. Check out our list of the initial steps to take after a layoff, to ensure you’re in as secure a place as possible.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1705007979,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":true,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":89,"wordCount":3722},"headData":{"title":"Layoffs: From Unemployment Benefits to Health Insurance, the Steps to Take ASAP | KQED","description":"Knowing what to do when you get laid off can feel daunting — especially if losing your job came as a shock. Check out our list of the initial steps to take after a layoff, to ensure you’re in as secure a place as possible.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Layoffs: From Unemployment Benefits to Health Insurance, the Steps to Take ASAP","datePublished":"2024-01-11T21:10:35.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-11T21:19:39.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11949192/layoffs-unemployment-benefits-health-insurance-calfresh","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This guide is part of the KQED News series \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/what-to-do-after-a-layoff\">What to Do After a Layoff.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing what to do when you get laid off can feel like a daunting prospect — especially if losing your job came as a total shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve compiled a list of the initial steps to take after a layoff, to ensure you’re in as secure a place as possible. Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#unemploymentbenefits\">Applying for unemployment benefits\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#healthinsurance\">Keeping your health insurance\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#otherbenefits\">Other benefits you might not know you’re eligible for\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>… Or keep reading. As with the instructions for assembling furniture, you might find it helpful to read all this advice start to finish before you embark on these applications — to be prepared for any bumps you might encounter.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Three tips to making applying for benefits after a layoff easier\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Your local government may have staff to help you do this\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many cities and counties have their own offices, staff or programs specifically designed for people in your situation right now — which often have physical offices you can visit, or hotlines to call to ask a person your questions. These kinds of local resources can be particularly helpful in navigating the various benefits you could be entitled to, and aiding in the application processes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some offices, like the Department of Benefits and Family Support within \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfhsa.org/\">San Francisco’s Human Services Agency (SFHSA)\u003c/a>, can take your information in one central application and apply for those benefits on your behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having the help of a city staffer trained in these applications could save you a lot of time and stress, says Bart Ellison, program manager at SFHSA’s Workforce Development Division — not just because the process is streamlined, but because you’ll be able to ask these folks questions either in person or over the phone. It’s their job to help you — let them do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Your city or county may also have a program to help you find new employment, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfhsa.org/services/jobs/jobsnow\">SFHSA’s free JobsNOW! program\u003c/a>, which is open to San Francisco job seekers based on their income level, and matches job hunters with roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdss.ca.gov/county-offices\">Find your local social services office in this statewide list.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Don’t feel weird about claiming the benefits you’re owed\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to claiming benefits after a layoff, Ellison wants to remind you that “we all pay for this through our taxes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s great that if you don’t need it, it’s there. If you do need it, it’s there, and it should be accessed,” Ellison said. “There’s no shame in any of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11957790,news_11970001,news_11967946,news_11968709","label":"COVID Resources and Explainers "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A lot of people also just don’t know about the benefits they could be eligible for, says Ellison, or assume they won’t qualify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also says that some of the eligible job seekers he and his team work with in San Francisco might fear coming forward to apply if a member of their family is undocumented, because they think it will cause them problems. “We don’t get involved in any of that,” said Ellison. “They should never fear that situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Try to be patient with how long the application process could take\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ellison says he and his team “try not to ask a client for documents that we know we already have in the system” — but concedes that sometimes, this process will feel like providing endless documentation. The benefits you’re applying for can be a mix of federal and state funds, so unfortunately “it’s not just as simple as coming in and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Bart, could you sign me up?,’” said Ellison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The more you can follow through with any documentation requests, hopefully the faster and smoother your application process will go. “And if you need more time or need help gathering stuff, that is what the eligibility staff are there for,” said Ellison. “They are there to \u003ci>help \u003c/i>you find some of these things. So you just need to kind of be your own advocate, and speak up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Read more layoff advice in our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/what-to-do-after-a-layoff\">What to Do After a Layoff \u003c/a>series\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"unemploymentbenefits\">\u003c/a>Step 1: Apply for unemployment benefits\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you’ve been laid off, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/apply/\">apply for unemployment insurance\u003c/a> (UI, also known just as “unemployment”) from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) as soon as you can. Not only could it take at least three weeks to receive any benefits payments from a successful claim, but your claim begins when you first apply for it — not the day you lose your job. So time is of the essence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Who can claim unemployment benefits?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re reading this and you \u003ci>chose\u003c/i> to leave your job, you usually aren’t eligible to claim unemployment. The exception to this is if you quit your job for what EDD calls “good cause,” which can include unsafe working conditions or a doctor’s advice. Whether or not you’re eligible to still claim UI in this situation will be determined by a phone interview with an EDD representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When applying for UI, you’ll have to show EDD that you have earned enough wages during the base period of 12 months, are totally or partially unemployed, are “unemployed through no fault of your own,” are physically able to work, are available for work and are ready and willing to accept work immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EDD will also ask you to show that you are “in satisfactory immigration status and authorized to work in the United States” not only now, but when you were earning the wages you’re using to establish your claim. EDD also warns that it will verify your immigration status and work authorization through the Department of Homeland Security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/UI-Calculator/\">calculate the amount of unemployment benefits you can receive using this tool\u003c/a>. Remember that the amount of unemployment you’ll receive is based on your wages over the last 18 months, calculated by EDD from a base period of 12 months within that time — and if you didn’t earn any wages during that period, you won’t qualify for unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/FAQ_-_Eligibility/\">See the EDD’s FAQ on who’s eligible to claim unemployment insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Gather your application information\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During your online application for UI, you’ll be asked to submit a lot of information — and it’s easiest to have all that gathered and ready, rather than trying to track it down in the middle of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to your basic identity information, you’ll need:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Your Social Security number\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Your employment authorization information, if you’re not a U.S. citizen\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A photo ID like a passport or driver’s license (for your ID.me account — more below)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>You’ll also need to provide your employment history for the last 18 months, which will include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The names of your previous employers\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Their addresses\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Their phone numbers\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The reason each job ended\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Your gross (total) wages earned\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hours worked per week\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hourly rate of pay\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946480\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946480 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits at her kitchen table and sifts through documents, looking concerned. Next to her is her opened laptop.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/GettyImages-1400799758-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">During your online application for UI, you’ll be asked to submit a lot of information — and it’s easiest to have all that gathered and ready, rather than trying to track it down in the middle of the process. \u003ccite>(MoMo Productions/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Make the online accounts you’ll need to apply \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To apply for UI for the first time, you’ll need to \u003ca href=\"https://portal.edd.ca.gov/WebApp/Registration\">create a new Benefit Programs Online account\u003c/a>, to enable you to log in and manage your UI claim. (You may already have one of these accounts if you’ve previously applied for UI, disability insurance or paid family leave — in that case, use the same one.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you give an email address as part of your Benefit Programs Online application, make sure you check for any emails from EDD. When you get an email with a link to complete your registration, make sure you click that link within 48 hours of receiving it — otherwise, you’ll have to start the registration process all over again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’ve created your Benefit Programs Online account, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">you’ll then register for UI Online\u003c/a>, which is the part of EDD’s online services that allows you to claim and manage your unemployment benefits. Keep reading for how to file your first UI claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ll \u003ci>also\u003c/i> need to \u003ca href=\"https://help.id.me/hc/en-us/articles/202673924-Creating-your-ID-me-account\">have an account with ID.me\u003c/a>, the identity verification EDD uses to make sure you’re really you when you’re claiming benefits. You can create your ID.me account before you create your Benefit Programs Online account, or when prompted during the process of creating it. If you’re creating your ID.me account beforehand, just make sure you keep the login details on hand so that you can sign into ID.me when prompted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might consider watching the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moJ1mokMRgc\">EDD’s short instructional video on YouTube about creating these accounts and filing your first UI claim\u003c/a>, so you know what to expect during the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>File your new UI claim\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One big thing: To start using UI Online, you’ll be asked for your “EDD Customer Account Number.” This is a number that’s unique to you, that you can also give instead of your Social Security number on the phone when speaking with an EDD representative. You should receive this number at the preferred email address you gave to EDD — in which case you can start using that EDD Customer Account Number immediately to register for UI Online. It’s also possible to \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/create-account/\">receive this number via mail “10 days after you file your claim,” says EDD\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To file a new claim, \u003ca href=\"https://portal.edd.ca.gov/WebApp/Login?resource_url=https:%2F%2Fportal.edd.ca.gov%2FWebApp%2FHome\">log into your Benefit Programs Online account\u003c/a>, and under “UI Online” select “File New Claim.” Remember you’ll also be asked to briefly sign in to your ID.me account to verify your identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t apply with UI Online 24/7, unfortunately — \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">the site has hours of operation\u003c/a> (located on the File and Manage Account tab), which EDD says are currently (all times Pacific Standard Time):\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sunday: 5 a.m.–8:30 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Monday: 4 a.m.–10 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tuesday–Friday: 2 a.m.–10 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Saturday: 2 a.m.–8 p.m.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If you need to pause during the UI Online application process, you can hit “Save as draft” to save your application to return to later — unless it’s \u003ci>after \u003c/i>8 p.m. on the Saturday of the week you’ve started the application. If it’s after 8 p.m. on Saturday, or you’re doing this on a Sunday, you won’t be able to save your application, and you will have to start it all over again if you exit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re having issues with UI Online, \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/ui_online/\">EDD recommends that you call their help line\u003c/a> at (833) 978-2511 and select option 1 after the introduction, available 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday. EDD says that Monday morning before 10 a.m. is their busiest call time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Getting — and keeping — your unemployment benefits\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once your application is complete, be aware of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/After_You_Filed/\">the next steps and further information that EDD will ask of you\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EDD says that \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/After_You_Filed/\">it “takes at least three weeks to process a claim\u003c/a> for unemployment benefits and issue payment to most eligible workers.” You’ll receive a debit card in the mail, which you can activate and then use to access your payments. If you have an old debit card from a previous UI claim, you can still use that one unless it’s expired (in which case you’ll be sent a new one).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To keep receiving UI after you first apply, you’ll have to certify for your unemployment benefits again every two weeks to continue receiving payments. You can do this online, by phone or through the mail, but EDD says you’ll get your payments faster if you certify online — and you’ll also get email reminders this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of this certification process every two weeks, you’ll have to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t_RgeoPH_g\">attest that you’re actively seeking employment\u003c/a>. This requirement was paused during the pandemic, but has since been reinstated. You’ll also need to \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/jobs_and_training/Caljobs/\">register for CalJOBS and post your resume to the site\u003c/a> to keep receiving your UI benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you start doing any work again after losing your job, it’s very important that you report those earnings when you certify for your UI benefits — because those wages have to be deducted from your unemployment benefits. \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/FAQ-claims/#:~:text=Can%20I%20still%20collect%20benefits,deducted%20from%20your%20unemployment%20payments.\">Read more on how EDD will adjust your UI if you start earning money again while claiming unemployment benefits.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re lucky enough to find a new full-time job, EDD is clear: “If you return to work full time, you will no longer be eligible for unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/certify/\">See EDD’s FAQ on certifying your UI claim every two weeks.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"healthinsurance\">\u003c/a>Step 2: Address your health insurance\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If your health insurance was tied to your employment, you need to act swiftly to ensure you’ll still have access to health care after your job ends. The option that’s best for you after your employment ends will depend primarily on how much income your household will now be receiving after you stop working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember that if you’ve applied for unemployment benefits, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">you’ll need to declare that unemployment compensation as income\u003c/a> when applying for health insurance plans. \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-household-information/income/\">Get advice on how to estimate your income on your application.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, check with your employer on when your health benefits will \u003ci>actually\u003c/i> end.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes a severance package will offer a holdover of benefits, advises the San Francisco’s Human Services Agency’s Bart Ellison. Ask very specific questions of your human resources team, if you have one, about when the last day of your health care will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>See if you can go on a family member’s health care.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Losing your health care because of a job loss will likely qualify as a special enrollment period for joining a family member’s plan, if eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have a domestic partner, you may be eligible to join their plan. If you’re under 26 years old, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/young-adults/children-under-26/\">you may be able to join a parent’s plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945872\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11945872 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg\" alt=\"A person with medium-toned skin sits at a wooden table writing on a notepad, surrounded by books. They are wearing a gray t-shirt and have tattooed forearms. We can't see their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Applying for benefits you’re entitled to can be a time-consuming process. \u003ccite>(cottonbro studio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Medi-Cal\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, which offers health care to lower-income folks throughout the state. Eligibility is assessed by your household income, and for many people who qualify, there is no cost of getting health care through Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laws passed in the last few years in California mean that \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/youngadultexp.aspx\">undocumented people age 25 or under\u003c/a> and also \u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/OlderAdultExpansion.aspx\">undocumented adults age 50 and over\u003c/a> are now eligible to receive Medi-Cal, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Covered California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">Medi-Cal has no limited enrollment period\u003c/a> — you can sign up at any time of year if eligible, including if you’ve lost your job. If your children previously were getting health care through your employer’s plan, \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurekidsnow.gov/coverage/ca/index.html\">Medi-Cal — or the Children’s Health Insurance Program — may be able to cover them now\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/Medi-CalFAQs2014a.aspx#1\">See the state’s FAQ about Medi-Cal.\u003c/a> Medi-Cal and Covered California use the same application portal at \u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/apply/\">coveredca.com/apply\u003c/a>. Fill out your details, and the site will tell you whether your household income makes you eligible for Medi-Cal or whether you have to choose a private plan from Covered California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Covered California\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Covered California is the state’s marketplace that offers private health insurance plans. Depending on your household income, you may qualify for a free or low-cost health plan through Covered California — or you may be eligible to receive financial help through Covered California that could help cover the costs of your premiums and co-pays. As with Medi-Cal, your household income is going to determine what you’re eligible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaving your job for any reason and subsequently \u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">losing your job-based health coverage qualifies for a special enrollment period\u003c/a> for signing up for a marketplace health plan. Usually, you’ll get 60 days from the day you lose your coverage to sign up for a health plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/eligibility/Pages/Medi-CalFAQs2014c.aspx#1\">See the state’s FAQ about Covered California.\u003c/a> Remember, Covered California uses the same application portal as Medi-Cal at \u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/apply/\">coveredca.com/apply\u003c/a>. Fill out your details, and the site will tell you whether your household income makes you eligible for Medi-Cal or whether you have to choose a private plan from Covered California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>COBRA\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>COBRA stands for the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act — and it’s a way of temporarily keeping health care after you leave a job. Instead of opting to sign up for Medi-Cal or a private health insurance plan through Covered California, you can choose so-called “continuation coverage” of your existing health care plan under COBRA, for a certain period of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Other-Insurance-Protections/cobra_qna\">Health care through COBRA can be applied retroactively\u003c/a>, if you’re unsure about electing it straightaway. The catch: COBRA is expensive, because it’s the health plan your employer was previously paying part or all of — and now, you’re paying all the costs yourself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Getting back onto health insurance taking a while? Know where your nearest community health center is.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t eligible for coverage through Medi-Cal, but signing up for another health plan is proving challenging right now, you can get low-cost health care at a nearby community health center. Make sure you know where your nearest one is, in case you need access to health care quickly. You can \u003ca href=\"https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/\">use this map to find the closest community health center near you\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>More resources on finding health care after losing your job:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.coveredca.com/marketing-blog/health-insurance-for-the-unemployed-from-cobra-to-medi-cal/\">Health Insurance for the Unemployed, from COBRA to Medi-Cal\u003c/a>” (from coveredca.com)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.healthcare.gov/unemployed/\">Health coverage options if you’re unemployed\u003c/a>” (from healthcare.gov)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"otherbenefits\">\u003c/a>Step 3: Don’t forget about other benefits you could be entitled to\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The quickest way to see what benefits you might be eligible for now is to \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">do one application through the state’s BenefitsCal portal\u003c/a>. This site will review your information and tell you what you may qualify for, including Medi-Cal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state says this application will take you between 30 minutes and an hour, and if you make an account you can save your progress and return to the application later, rather than having to start again. One catch: Not all counties in California are using this portal yet. \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">Select your county from the drop-down menu\u003c/a> to see whether you have to use another site — \u003ca href=\"https://www.mybenefitscalwin.org/\">mybenefitscalwin.org\u003c/a> — instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other benefits you could be entitled to may include:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CalFresh (SNAP)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalFresh is the state’s version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food benefits program also known as “food stamps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11943420","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/GettyImages-1144627849-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to the state’s data from March 2023, over 3 million households use these funds to ensure they have access to food. You can \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/ApplyForBenefits/ABOVR\">apply through benefitscal.com\u003c/a>, which will also show you all other benefits you’re entitled to, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.getcalfresh.org/\">go direct through getcalfresh.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have at least one child in your home, CalWORKs is a public assistance program that offers cash aid and services to eligible families. \u003ca href=\"https://benefitscal.com/\">See if your family is eligible to receive CalWORKs at benefitscal.com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>WIC (Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WIC provides food assistance to lower-income families who have young children or are expecting a new child. Like CalFresh, it’s federally funded, and you can receive WIC benefits on top of your CalFresh benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program is income-based, and is available to pregnant people, plus new parents and grandparents of young children.\u003ca href=\"https://myfamily.wic.ca.gov/Home/HowCanIGetWIC#howToGetWIC\"> See whether you’re eligible for WIC and apply online.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make sure to read the rest of our KQED guides about other steps you can take after a layoff to better support yourself and those who depend on you:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949801/layoffs-how-to-find-a-new-job-jobhunting-tips\">The Best Ways to Find a New Job, According to an Expert\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949674/layoffs-mental-health-lost-job-self-care\">How to Prioritize Your Mental Health After Losing Your Job, From Telling Family to Self-Care\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11948895/layoffs-how-to-save-more-money-after-losing-your-job\">How to Save More Money After Losing Your Job\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"hearken","attributes":{"named":{"id":"10483","src":"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on May 19, 2023\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11949192/layoffs-unemployment-benefits-health-insurance-calfresh","authors":["3243"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_32707","news_5164","news_28339","news_31848","news_27626","news_1054","news_352","news_32053","news_2605","news_28004","news_631","news_30130","news_32735"],"featImg":"news_11949742","label":"news"},"news_11949679":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11949679","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11949679","score":null,"sort":[1684271105000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"thousands-of-californians-are-still-waiting-for-covid-unemployment-funds","title":"Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds","publishDate":1684271105,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">benefit backlogs\u003c/a> that ensnared some \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">5 million people\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2020-128and628.1/introduction.html\">officials have said\u003c/a> was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport2023.pdf\">nearly $19 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> in unemployment debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easier to not think the money’s there,” Allen said. “Because if I worry about it too much, it’s too painful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD has paid out \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/\">$188 billion\u003c/a> in unemployment benefits since the first pandemic shutdowns. State and federal officials waived many ordinary application requirements as millions of claims flooded in, and the agency \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/#:~:text=CA%20EDD%20admits%20that%20as,to%20scammers%2C%20California%20EDD%20admits.\">has acknowledged\u003c/a> that up to $31 billion was paid to scammers in the rush to distribute money quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, state watchdogs say \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">up to 1 million workers\u003c/a> were wrongly denied benefits — many mistakenly flagged for committing fraud themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accusing people of fraud is a big deal,” said George Warner, director of the Wage Protection Program at San Francisco’s Legal Aid at Work. “And the EDD does it very casually, very frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest logjam of contested unemployment cases lies in a \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/appeals/\">state appeals process\u003c/a>, where more than 1 million workers have asked for a review of EDD’s decisions in their cases since March 2020. About 880,000 of those cases have already \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">been transferred (PDF)\u003c/a> and heard by a lesser-known state labor agency, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where the average case is still languishing for 139 days before a hearing with a judge, federal \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of workers who have exhausted this state process have elevated their claims even further, to \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/03/Historical-CourtCases-0223b.pdf\">appellate or superior courts (PDF)\u003c/a>. Finally, advocacy groups and hundreds more workers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-sued-over-edd-unemployment-debit-card-fraud/\">have joined\u003c/a> proposed class-action lawsuits against the EDD or its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/02/how-edd-and-bank-of-america-make-millions-on-california-unemployment/\">debit card contractor\u003c/a>, Bank of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the EDD and the Appeals Board refused requests for interviews to discuss workers’ concerns and state efforts to respond. The agencies also referred some inquiries to one another or offered conflicting answers, raising questions about how delays and associated costs are being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Carole M., officer manager, Southern California\"]‘I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gregory Crettol, assistant director of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, told CalMatters in a statement that the Appeals Board has hired and trained 105 judges and 100 new support staffers since the onset of the pandemic. The board is also rolling out a new online system for workers to track their cases, and officials said at an April meeting that judges are now closing almost twice as many cases per month as pre-pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “Given the historic backlog of appeals,” Crettol said in a statement, the Appeals Board “anticipates it will likely take several more years to completely resolve before workload returns to normal levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment cases are complex and vary widely, but workers awaiting disputed funds have faced similarly dire challenges. A 33-year-old video editor in Burbank had to create a GoFundMe to restart her life during a gender transition. A security guard In L.A. County worried whether fellow workers still seeking unemployment would end up in the homeless camps he once patrolled. A 62-year-old temp worker in Sacramento spent months terrified she’d lose her car, and a legal office manager in Southern California filed for food stamps and Medi-Cal to survive an appeal with no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really feel like I’m a hostage,” said the office manager, who asked to be identified only as Carole M. and has been awaiting an appeal hearing since November. “I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Fraud fury\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like many of California’s COVID-era unemployment challenges, slow and unwieldy payment disputes aren’t new. But the pandemic did two things: unleash an unprecedented flood of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/#TotalUnemploymentClaims\">29 million\u003c/a> jobless claims, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/12/who-will-pay-for-all-of-californias-unemployment-fraud/\">supercharge anxiety\u003c/a> about a new generation of online fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival politicians have seized on jobless claims filed in the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-24/california-has-sent-jobless-benefits-to-death-row-inmates\">death row inmates\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/nuke-bizzle-fraud-youtube.html#:~:text=the%20main%20story-,Rapper%20Arrested%20After%20Bragging%20About%20Unemployment%20Fraud%20in%20Video,coronavirus%20pandemic%2C%20the%20authorities%20said.\">YouTube rappers\u003c/a> bragging about EDD-fueled spending sprees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits\">Investigators attribute\u003c/a> the bulk of pandemic unemployment fraud to organized identity theft. Unemployment attorneys, meanwhile, say they’re seeing regular workers who thought they were eligible for benefits disqualified — and sometimes charged with lying — in cases that can sometimes be explained by confusion about state forms, clerical errors, language barriers or disagreements between workers and employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so wrong,” said Assaf Lichtash, founding attorney of Los Angeles-based Pershing Square Law Firm. “The way I see it, the EDD is punishing regular civilians that are just filing for benefits who make honest mistakes — they’re punishing them for their failure to safeguard the money from fraudsters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State reports have also highlighted a disconnect between the EDD’s ham-fisted approach to large-scale fraud and what some say seems like a hair-trigger impulse to flag individual workers. Organized scammers evaded the agency’s automated application systems early in the pandemic, one \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by a governor-appointed EDD Strike Team found, while the vast majority of individual workers scrutinized in manual reviews appeared to be innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Processes intended to block fraud are slowing service delivery without catching fraud,” the Strike Team wrote, since just 0.02% of the 1.3 million cases flagged that summer appeared to be real fraud. “The cost of finding that small number of imposters is extremely high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Stories on Health' tag='health']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">report last August\u003c/a> by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, during the pandemic, state appeals judges overturned EDD unemployment denials up to 80% of the time. That report highlighted another sample of 1.1 million unemployment claims stopped due to fraud concerns by an EDD consultant early in the pandemic, where at least 600,000 cases were later “confirmed as legitimate” and workers saw payments needlessly delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before COVID upended the job market, the Analyst’s Office estimated that improper unemployment denials cost workers $500 million to $1 billion a year in unpaid benefits. The agency also noted “concerning steps” at EDD in recent years that “suggest that ensuring eligible workers get benefits is not among its top priorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD refused to discuss its approach to appeals during the pandemic. Over the past three years, the agency has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">invested heavily\u003c/a> in new anti-fraud technology and \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/news-22-06.pdf\">sought federal waivers (PDF)\u003c/a> for some workers who may have received extra federal pandemic unemployment funds “through no fault of their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers who still want to fight an unemployment case, \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">the first step (PDF)\u003c/a> is to notify the EDD in writing. The EDD then transfers the case to a local office of the Appeals Board, which schedules a hearing with an administrative judge. If a worker or business still feels that their case is unresolved, they can file another appeal with the state-level office of the Appeals Board, or eventually escalate the case to a superior or appellate court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of March, the average first-level appeals case with a judge was taking 139 days — a lag not as extreme as some other states, U.S. Department of Labor \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>, but still roughly triple the federal government’s 30- and 45-day targets for state unemployment appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621589/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of surge is predictable after a recession; the Appeals Board heard about 1.6 million cases in the years around the Great Recession, Crettol said. But workers like Allen, the Fresno graphic designer, have seen first-hand how pandemic cases can be complicated by heightened focus on fraud and differing interpretations of emergency health orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Allen’s case, he told state officials that he quit his job in July 2021, when the Delta variant of the coronavirus was raging and his wife was instructed not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while navigating a high-risk pregnancy. Since health precautions like masking were not strictly enforced at his in-person job as a sign installer, Allen wrote in a state appeals filing, he quit “to eliminate the risk of bringing COVID-19 home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One unemployment payment arrived, but then the money stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt, gold chain and a black Bluetooth device in his ear poses inside his home next to a white door. On the white door is a homemade sign that reads, "William's and Joseph's Room" with two photos of the two boys.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicolas Allen in his home in Fresno on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was told that it had been reported that it was a fraudulent claim,” Allen said. “Because my former employer was claiming that I quit without cause.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an odyssey that involved months of arguing about pandemic protocols, clerical confusion over a brief freelance gig and paperwork ping-ponging between the EDD and the Appeals Board. After the second appeal, a state judge awarded Allen about six weeks out of the six months of benefits he applied for — securing around $3,000 of the $10,000 he sought, not counting potential federal unemployment supplements available during the pandemic — but denied the rest after questioning how actively he was seeking work while caring for two children under age 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the state, some 170,000 other appeals cases are still pending, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data reported\u003c/a> by the U.S. Department of Labor. Crettol said the Appeals Board is encouraged that new appeals have started to decline in recent months, and cited a lower state count of 154,000 backlogged cases through the end of March — a discrepancy that he said stems from differences in how state and federal numbers are reported due to funding sources and EDD processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621625/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys like Lichtash add that for those stuck waiting, one challenge is a lack of information about if and when a case has been transferred to the Appeals Board from the EDD, the latter of which he called a “black hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD said in a statement to CalMatters that it sends cases to the Appeals Board in an average of three days. The Appeals Board offered a conflicting number: that it receives about two-thirds of appeals within a week after an appeal is filed, which Crettol said could differ due to how the two agencies track processing times. Neither agency regularly tracks the “monetary value” of appeals cases, or how much the state is being awarded or ordered to pay, spokespeople said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers like Allen caught in the fray, the price of being caught up in the confusion has been high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His family slashed expenses like cable TV and was able to refinance their house, which they credit with avoiding falling behind on the mortgage. But Allen said they were still forced to borrow money from family and take on credit card debt, putting everyday luxuries like a dinner at a restaurant with their kids out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s horrible. I mean, we’re living off my paycheck,” said Allen’s wife, Sharon, who works in human resources. “We’ve almost divorced a few times because of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path for reform?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, unemployment advocates like Jenna Gerry say the pandemic has shone “a spotlight” on chronic problems with the state’s job safety net, from worker confusion over benefit denials to delays at EDD to inconsistent anti-fraud efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she and others are asking now is whether state officials will act to change the system that has once again gone haywire, or whether workers caught up in pandemic disputes will be left to bear the brunt of the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a perfect storm,” said Gerry, a senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. “Instead of being like, ‘Wow, that was really bad. How do we make reforms now?’ … all people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest underlying issue, Gerry said, is that millions of California workers — such as gig workers, undocumented workers and others in tenuous hourly positions — aren’t eligible for normal unemployment benefits. That was why the federal government started \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">emergency jobless programs\u003c/a> like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. But subsequent high rates of fraud in the emergency program have complicated conversations at the federal and state levels about whether to make elements of the program permanent to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">cover more workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jenna Gerry, staff attorney, National Employment Law Project\"]‘All people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential change that advocates are watching closely in California is a plan to finally upgrade the state’s unemployment technology. The Appeals Board says it is rolling out a new system now, and the EDD is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/12/unemployment-benefits-california-edd/\">preparing to launch\u003c/a> an effort called EDDNext. The challenge will be ensuring that such projects are more effective than other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">costly upgrades\u003c/a> after the Great Recession, which audits said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">buckled at the EDD during the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the more targeted reforms that state agencies \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">have recommended\u003c/a>, but which legislators have yet to act on: removing the EDD from the appeals process, expanding the role of the Appeals Board or adding a new surcharge for businesses that frivolously appeal unemployment insurance (UI) claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To correct state practices that have the effect of limiting UI payments,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote last summer, “the state should give the appeals board the authority and responsibility to set UI policy and practices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these debates drag on, some unemployment advocates and workers are taking matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/notice-of-class-action-settlement.pdf\">lawsuit against the EDD (PDF)\u003c/a>, the Sacramento-based Center for Workers’ Rights negotiated a February settlement to head off more payment disputes. The EDD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/edd-won-t-require-refunds-unemployment-17789516.php\">agreed to cancel\u003c/a> around 5,000 notices of overpayment sent to workers already past a year-long statute of limitations, and to refrain from sending other similar notices past the allowed timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement applies only to workers not flagged for potential fraud, leaving attorneys to worry that others still caught up in disputes or unsure how to contest their cases will slip through the cracks. Workers marked for making false statements to EDD face severe penalties — they could be forced to repay the money at high interest, have their wages garnished or be disqualified from collecting benefits if they lose a future job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The burden is generally put on the claimant to appeal,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But these notices never should have been issued.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with reddish, shoulder-length hair, cateye glasses and a yellow and black floral blouse poses with a serious face in front of her apartment complex.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madeline Maye, a video editor based in Burbank on Feb. 12, 2023. Maye lost $5000 to the Bank of America EDD debit card fraud of 2020. She had been laid off from her job just months earlier and was struggling to find freelance video editing work in the pandemic. The situation was compounded for Maye by the fact that she had just come out as transgender, was navigating hormone therapy, and trying to pay for essentials like rent and feminine-presenting clothes and products. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farther south, in Burbank, Madeline Maye is still seeking some form of closure two years into another proposed class action lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing couldn’t have been worse in mid-2020, when, in the midst of hormone therapy and a gender transition, the video editor became \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/\">one of thousands of California workers\u003c/a> who noticed money draining from their unemployment debit cards in alleged fraudulent charges. The next year, she joined a class action claim against the state’s debit card contractor, Bank of America, which is now awaiting a hearing date before a federal judge in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bank of America has filed to dismiss the suit and declined to comment on ongoing litigation. It was separately \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/federal-regulators-fine-bank-of-america-225-million-over-botched-disbursement-of-state-unemployment-benefits-at-height-of-pandemic/\">fined $225 million\u003c/a> last year by federal regulators for what they deemed “botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Maye’s case, it took about six months to get her unemployment money back from the bank, forcing her to start a GoFundMe account to pay rent and buy essentials like new clothes to restart her life. Her lawsuit is one of several that will test what justice might look like after the state’s job safety net failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got my money back, but it was one of the worst times in my life,” Maye said. “It felt like I was alone — that no one gave a shit about me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Californians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1684281693,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621589/embed","https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621625/embed"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":59,"wordCount":3048},"headData":{"title":"Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds | KQED","description":"Californians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds","datePublished":"2023-05-16T21:05:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-05-17T00:01:33.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/laurenhepler/\">Lauren Hepler\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11949679/thousands-of-californians-are-still-waiting-for-covid-unemployment-funds","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">benefit backlogs\u003c/a> that ensnared some \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">5 million people\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2020-128and628.1/introduction.html\">officials have said\u003c/a> was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport2023.pdf\">nearly $19 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> in unemployment debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easier to not think the money’s there,” Allen said. “Because if I worry about it too much, it’s too painful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD has paid out \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/\">$188 billion\u003c/a> in unemployment benefits since the first pandemic shutdowns. State and federal officials waived many ordinary application requirements as millions of claims flooded in, and the agency \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/#:~:text=CA%20EDD%20admits%20that%20as,to%20scammers%2C%20California%20EDD%20admits.\">has acknowledged\u003c/a> that up to $31 billion was paid to scammers in the rush to distribute money quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, state watchdogs say \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">up to 1 million workers\u003c/a> were wrongly denied benefits — many mistakenly flagged for committing fraud themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accusing people of fraud is a big deal,” said George Warner, director of the Wage Protection Program at San Francisco’s Legal Aid at Work. “And the EDD does it very casually, very frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest logjam of contested unemployment cases lies in a \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/appeals/\">state appeals process\u003c/a>, where more than 1 million workers have asked for a review of EDD’s decisions in their cases since March 2020. About 880,000 of those cases have already \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">been transferred (PDF)\u003c/a> and heard by a lesser-known state labor agency, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where the average case is still languishing for 139 days before a hearing with a judge, federal \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of workers who have exhausted this state process have elevated their claims even further, to \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/03/Historical-CourtCases-0223b.pdf\">appellate or superior courts (PDF)\u003c/a>. Finally, advocacy groups and hundreds more workers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-sued-over-edd-unemployment-debit-card-fraud/\">have joined\u003c/a> proposed class-action lawsuits against the EDD or its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/02/how-edd-and-bank-of-america-make-millions-on-california-unemployment/\">debit card contractor\u003c/a>, Bank of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the EDD and the Appeals Board refused requests for interviews to discuss workers’ concerns and state efforts to respond. The agencies also referred some inquiries to one another or offered conflicting answers, raising questions about how delays and associated costs are being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?”","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Carole M., officer manager, Southern California","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gregory Crettol, assistant director of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, told CalMatters in a statement that the Appeals Board has hired and trained 105 judges and 100 new support staffers since the onset of the pandemic. The board is also rolling out a new online system for workers to track their cases, and officials said at an April meeting that judges are now closing almost twice as many cases per month as pre-pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “Given the historic backlog of appeals,” Crettol said in a statement, the Appeals Board “anticipates it will likely take several more years to completely resolve before workload returns to normal levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment cases are complex and vary widely, but workers awaiting disputed funds have faced similarly dire challenges. A 33-year-old video editor in Burbank had to create a GoFundMe to restart her life during a gender transition. A security guard In L.A. County worried whether fellow workers still seeking unemployment would end up in the homeless camps he once patrolled. A 62-year-old temp worker in Sacramento spent months terrified she’d lose her car, and a legal office manager in Southern California filed for food stamps and Medi-Cal to survive an appeal with no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really feel like I’m a hostage,” said the office manager, who asked to be identified only as Carole M. and has been awaiting an appeal hearing since November. “I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Fraud fury\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like many of California’s COVID-era unemployment challenges, slow and unwieldy payment disputes aren’t new. But the pandemic did two things: unleash an unprecedented flood of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/#TotalUnemploymentClaims\">29 million\u003c/a> jobless claims, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/12/who-will-pay-for-all-of-californias-unemployment-fraud/\">supercharge anxiety\u003c/a> about a new generation of online fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival politicians have seized on jobless claims filed in the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-24/california-has-sent-jobless-benefits-to-death-row-inmates\">death row inmates\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/nuke-bizzle-fraud-youtube.html#:~:text=the%20main%20story-,Rapper%20Arrested%20After%20Bragging%20About%20Unemployment%20Fraud%20in%20Video,coronavirus%20pandemic%2C%20the%20authorities%20said.\">YouTube rappers\u003c/a> bragging about EDD-fueled spending sprees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits\">Investigators attribute\u003c/a> the bulk of pandemic unemployment fraud to organized identity theft. Unemployment attorneys, meanwhile, say they’re seeing regular workers who thought they were eligible for benefits disqualified — and sometimes charged with lying — in cases that can sometimes be explained by confusion about state forms, clerical errors, language barriers or disagreements between workers and employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so wrong,” said Assaf Lichtash, founding attorney of Los Angeles-based Pershing Square Law Firm. “The way I see it, the EDD is punishing regular civilians that are just filing for benefits who make honest mistakes — they’re punishing them for their failure to safeguard the money from fraudsters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State reports have also highlighted a disconnect between the EDD’s ham-fisted approach to large-scale fraud and what some say seems like a hair-trigger impulse to flag individual workers. Organized scammers evaded the agency’s automated application systems early in the pandemic, one \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by a governor-appointed EDD Strike Team found, while the vast majority of individual workers scrutinized in manual reviews appeared to be innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Processes intended to block fraud are slowing service delivery without catching fraud,” the Strike Team wrote, since just 0.02% of the 1.3 million cases flagged that summer appeared to be real fraud. “The cost of finding that small number of imposters is extremely high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"More Stories on Health ","tag":"health"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">report last August\u003c/a> by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, during the pandemic, state appeals judges overturned EDD unemployment denials up to 80% of the time. That report highlighted another sample of 1.1 million unemployment claims stopped due to fraud concerns by an EDD consultant early in the pandemic, where at least 600,000 cases were later “confirmed as legitimate” and workers saw payments needlessly delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before COVID upended the job market, the Analyst’s Office estimated that improper unemployment denials cost workers $500 million to $1 billion a year in unpaid benefits. The agency also noted “concerning steps” at EDD in recent years that “suggest that ensuring eligible workers get benefits is not among its top priorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD refused to discuss its approach to appeals during the pandemic. Over the past three years, the agency has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">invested heavily\u003c/a> in new anti-fraud technology and \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/news-22-06.pdf\">sought federal waivers (PDF)\u003c/a> for some workers who may have received extra federal pandemic unemployment funds “through no fault of their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers who still want to fight an unemployment case, \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">the first step (PDF)\u003c/a> is to notify the EDD in writing. The EDD then transfers the case to a local office of the Appeals Board, which schedules a hearing with an administrative judge. If a worker or business still feels that their case is unresolved, they can file another appeal with the state-level office of the Appeals Board, or eventually escalate the case to a superior or appellate court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of March, the average first-level appeals case with a judge was taking 139 days — a lag not as extreme as some other states, U.S. Department of Labor \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>, but still roughly triple the federal government’s 30- and 45-day targets for state unemployment appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621589/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of surge is predictable after a recession; the Appeals Board heard about 1.6 million cases in the years around the Great Recession, Crettol said. But workers like Allen, the Fresno graphic designer, have seen first-hand how pandemic cases can be complicated by heightened focus on fraud and differing interpretations of emergency health orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Allen’s case, he told state officials that he quit his job in July 2021, when the Delta variant of the coronavirus was raging and his wife was instructed not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while navigating a high-risk pregnancy. Since health precautions like masking were not strictly enforced at his in-person job as a sign installer, Allen wrote in a state appeals filing, he quit “to eliminate the risk of bringing COVID-19 home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One unemployment payment arrived, but then the money stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt, gold chain and a black Bluetooth device in his ear poses inside his home next to a white door. On the white door is a homemade sign that reads, "William's and Joseph's Room" with two photos of the two boys.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicolas Allen in his home in Fresno on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was told that it had been reported that it was a fraudulent claim,” Allen said. “Because my former employer was claiming that I quit without cause.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an odyssey that involved months of arguing about pandemic protocols, clerical confusion over a brief freelance gig and paperwork ping-ponging between the EDD and the Appeals Board. After the second appeal, a state judge awarded Allen about six weeks out of the six months of benefits he applied for — securing around $3,000 of the $10,000 he sought, not counting potential federal unemployment supplements available during the pandemic — but denied the rest after questioning how actively he was seeking work while caring for two children under age 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the state, some 170,000 other appeals cases are still pending, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data reported\u003c/a> by the U.S. Department of Labor. Crettol said the Appeals Board is encouraged that new appeals have started to decline in recent months, and cited a lower state count of 154,000 backlogged cases through the end of March — a discrepancy that he said stems from differences in how state and federal numbers are reported due to funding sources and EDD processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621625/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys like Lichtash add that for those stuck waiting, one challenge is a lack of information about if and when a case has been transferred to the Appeals Board from the EDD, the latter of which he called a “black hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD said in a statement to CalMatters that it sends cases to the Appeals Board in an average of three days. The Appeals Board offered a conflicting number: that it receives about two-thirds of appeals within a week after an appeal is filed, which Crettol said could differ due to how the two agencies track processing times. Neither agency regularly tracks the “monetary value” of appeals cases, or how much the state is being awarded or ordered to pay, spokespeople said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers like Allen caught in the fray, the price of being caught up in the confusion has been high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His family slashed expenses like cable TV and was able to refinance their house, which they credit with avoiding falling behind on the mortgage. But Allen said they were still forced to borrow money from family and take on credit card debt, putting everyday luxuries like a dinner at a restaurant with their kids out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s horrible. I mean, we’re living off my paycheck,” said Allen’s wife, Sharon, who works in human resources. “We’ve almost divorced a few times because of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path for reform?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, unemployment advocates like Jenna Gerry say the pandemic has shone “a spotlight” on chronic problems with the state’s job safety net, from worker confusion over benefit denials to delays at EDD to inconsistent anti-fraud efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she and others are asking now is whether state officials will act to change the system that has once again gone haywire, or whether workers caught up in pandemic disputes will be left to bear the brunt of the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a perfect storm,” said Gerry, a senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. “Instead of being like, ‘Wow, that was really bad. How do we make reforms now?’ … all people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest underlying issue, Gerry said, is that millions of California workers — such as gig workers, undocumented workers and others in tenuous hourly positions — aren’t eligible for normal unemployment benefits. That was why the federal government started \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">emergency jobless programs\u003c/a> like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. But subsequent high rates of fraud in the emergency program have complicated conversations at the federal and state levels about whether to make elements of the program permanent to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">cover more workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘All people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Jenna Gerry, staff attorney, National Employment Law Project","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential change that advocates are watching closely in California is a plan to finally upgrade the state’s unemployment technology. The Appeals Board says it is rolling out a new system now, and the EDD is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/12/unemployment-benefits-california-edd/\">preparing to launch\u003c/a> an effort called EDDNext. The challenge will be ensuring that such projects are more effective than other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">costly upgrades\u003c/a> after the Great Recession, which audits said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">buckled at the EDD during the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the more targeted reforms that state agencies \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">have recommended\u003c/a>, but which legislators have yet to act on: removing the EDD from the appeals process, expanding the role of the Appeals Board or adding a new surcharge for businesses that frivolously appeal unemployment insurance (UI) claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To correct state practices that have the effect of limiting UI payments,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote last summer, “the state should give the appeals board the authority and responsibility to set UI policy and practices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these debates drag on, some unemployment advocates and workers are taking matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/notice-of-class-action-settlement.pdf\">lawsuit against the EDD (PDF)\u003c/a>, the Sacramento-based Center for Workers’ Rights negotiated a February settlement to head off more payment disputes. The EDD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/edd-won-t-require-refunds-unemployment-17789516.php\">agreed to cancel\u003c/a> around 5,000 notices of overpayment sent to workers already past a year-long statute of limitations, and to refrain from sending other similar notices past the allowed timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement applies only to workers not flagged for potential fraud, leaving attorneys to worry that others still caught up in disputes or unsure how to contest their cases will slip through the cracks. Workers marked for making false statements to EDD face severe penalties — they could be forced to repay the money at high interest, have their wages garnished or be disqualified from collecting benefits if they lose a future job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The burden is generally put on the claimant to appeal,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But these notices never should have been issued.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with reddish, shoulder-length hair, cateye glasses and a yellow and black floral blouse poses with a serious face in front of her apartment complex.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madeline Maye, a video editor based in Burbank on Feb. 12, 2023. Maye lost $5000 to the Bank of America EDD debit card fraud of 2020. She had been laid off from her job just months earlier and was struggling to find freelance video editing work in the pandemic. The situation was compounded for Maye by the fact that she had just come out as transgender, was navigating hormone therapy, and trying to pay for essentials like rent and feminine-presenting clothes and products. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farther south, in Burbank, Madeline Maye is still seeking some form of closure two years into another proposed class action lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing couldn’t have been worse in mid-2020, when, in the midst of hormone therapy and a gender transition, the video editor became \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/\">one of thousands of California workers\u003c/a> who noticed money draining from their unemployment debit cards in alleged fraudulent charges. The next year, she joined a class action claim against the state’s debit card contractor, Bank of America, which is now awaiting a hearing date before a federal judge in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bank of America has filed to dismiss the suit and declined to comment on ongoing litigation. It was separately \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/federal-regulators-fine-bank-of-america-225-million-over-botched-disbursement-of-state-unemployment-benefits-at-height-of-pandemic/\">fined $225 million\u003c/a> last year by federal regulators for what they deemed “botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Maye’s case, it took about six months to get her unemployment money back from the bank, forcing her to start a GoFundMe account to pay rent and buy essentials like new clothes to restart her life. Her lawsuit is one of several that will test what justice might look like after the state’s job safety net failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got my money back, but it was one of the worst times in my life,” Maye said. “It felt like I was alone — that no one gave a shit about me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11949679/thousands-of-californians-are-still-waiting-for-covid-unemployment-funds","authors":["byline_news_11949679"],"categories":["news_457","news_8"],"tags":["news_18538","news_27989","news_31470","news_28340","news_37","news_27660","news_631","news_32553","news_30130"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11949704","label":"news_18481"},"news_11946661":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11946661","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11946661","score":null,"sort":[1681435825000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"ive-been-contributing-undocumented-workers-are-key-to-californias-economy-a-new-bill-would-give-them-unemployment-benefits","title":"'I've Been Contributing': Undocumented Workers Are Key to California's Economy. A New Bill Would Give Them Unemployment Benefits","publishDate":1681435825,"format":"standard","headTitle":"‘I’ve Been Contributing’: Undocumented Workers Are Key to California’s Economy. A New Bill Would Give Them Unemployment Benefits | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Several hundred demonstrators from around California converged Thursday at the state’s Capitol in support of a bill that would offer income assistance to workers who are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits because of their immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Safety Net for All Day of Action,” as dubbed by organizers, comes a month after a disastrous flood submerged vast expanses of berry and lettuce farmlands on the Central Coast and left \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11944008/we-have-nothing-pajaro-farmworkers-face-the-prospect-of-no-income-at-start-of-harvesting-season\">thousands of local agricultural workers — many of them undocumented — facing the prospect of no income for months\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more natural disasters like this winter’s atmospheric-river fueled storms are expected to disrupt jobs, supporters of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB227\">SB 227\u003c/a> say it’s urgent for the state of California to fund an economic safety net for laid-off undocumented residents — instead of leaving nonprofits scrambling after every emergency to offer cash aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2.jpg\" alt=\"A photo from behind of a group of people marching. A sign depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe is being held up. It says Salud y Justicia Para Todos, Safety Net for All\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Advocates say it’s essential for California to fund a safety net program for undocumented workers, who play a key role in California’s agriculture, construction, retail trade and food services industries. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s just not a feasible solution, where we have over a million undocumented workers in the state,” said Kim Ouillette, attorney with \u003ca href=\"https://legalaidatwork.org/\">Legal Aid at Work\u003c/a>, an organization that is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://caimmigrant.org/what-we-do/policy/economic-justice/safety-net-for-all-bill/\">Safety Net for All Coalition\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Realizing that reality, it can’t just be left to piecework charity,” she said. “The state has an obligation to ensure that there’s a system in place that protects California workers that are major parts of significant industries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 1.1 million unauthorized immigrants labor in California, particularly in low-wage jobs in agriculture, construction, retail trade and food services. \u003ca href=\"https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2770\">In agriculture, half of the state’s crop workforce lacks employment authorization\u003c/a>, as estimated by the U.S. Department of Labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf_pub_ctr/de8714b.pdf\">California’s unemployment insurance system is funded in part with dollars from the federal government (PDF)\u003c/a>, which renders unauthorized immigrants ineligible for those benefits. However, \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/essential_fairness.pdf\">the employers of those immigrants pay tax contributions to that same system — hundreds of millions of dollars each year — on their behalf (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to estimates by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11946687 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3.jpg\" alt='A sign that says \"Solo el Pueblo/Salva Al Pueblo\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers say unauthorized immigrants pay significant state and local taxes annually. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>SB 227 would direct the Employment Development Department, or EDD, to create an “Excluded Workers Program” offering eligible individuals $300 dollars weekly for up to 20 weeks, with funds that would come from state coffers only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the bill, California residents would be eligible for the benefits if they performed at least 93 hours of work or earned $1,300 or more in gross wages over the course of three months during the year before their application. That cash assistance would become available at the earliest by Jan. 1, 2025, and end by the start of 2027, according to the measure by Los Angeles state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates and workers pushing for the bill said they started organizing at the start of the pandemic, when the safety net gap became increasingly evident as undocumented residents in hard-hit industries lost income but were unable to access the unemployment benefits other workers had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946688\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11946688 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4.jpg\" alt=\"Three demonstrators, all wearing dark sweatshirts and face masks that obscure their faces, hold up a yellow sign with a bright, round insignia that says Mixteco/Indigeni Community Organizing Project, standing in the middle of a street with trees and high-rise buildings beyond them, on a blue-sky day.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds gathered at the California state Capitol in support of SB 227, a bill that would offer unemployment benefits to undocumented workers, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s not fair. I’ve been contributing to the state,” said Luis Mejia, who has worked in California for 13 years. “We need the governor to sign this law proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 54-year-old car wash worker said losing his income for months during the pandemic — with no jobless benefits to rely on — was incredibly stressful. He fell hopelessly behind on rent and couldn’t send money to his two daughters in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those were moments that I would not wish on anyone else,” said Mejia, one of numerous Bay Area residents who woke up before dawn to ride a bus from San Francisco’s Civic Center to Sacramento with the organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.tuwu.org/\">Trabajadores Unidos Workers United\u003c/a>. “That’s why I’m taking measures so that on this trip to Sacramento, we tell Mr. Gavin Newsom that we are here. We are still in this fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5.jpg\" alt=\"Demonstrators hold up a sign in front of the California State Capitol\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under the bill, assistance for undocumented immigrants would begin Jan. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Legislature passed a similar bill last year, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AB-2847-VETO.pdf?emrc=87cd0d\">Gov. Newsom vetoed it (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing fiscal concerns. Those objections could be magnified this year, as the state faces a huge budget shortfall. While the administration \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4687\">projected the deficit at $22.5 billion, it could be about $7 billion larger\u003c/a>, according to a report last month by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, supporters of SB 227, which has become a top issue for the California Latino Legislative Caucus, argue that it’s a question of basic equity and justice. Unauthorized immigrants pay significant state and local taxes annually, to the tune of \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantdataca.org/indicators/economic-contributions?immig=3\">$3.72 billion in 2019\u003c/a>, researchers at the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute found. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"undocumented-workers\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes at \u003ca href=\"https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-budget-subcommittee-no-4-state-administration-20230328\">a budget subcommittee hearing on the proposal last month\u003c/a>. “They have been paying into the system, their employers have been paying their part of it. Yet none of those workers receive any of the benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the march near the Capitol, a crowd of hundreds of people who had traversed the state from the Coachella Valley, Fresno and other regions, filled the sidewalks. An accompanying band played corridos and cumbias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we don’t have documents, we have rights to demand something better for our community,” said marcher Ana Alfaro, a home cleaner from San Francisco who said she had to borrow money and rely on a food bank to feed her family as she lost several clients during the pandemic. “It’s so important that our undocumented community is not afraid and that we stand united.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s supporters are requesting Newsom include $356 million for its implementation in his revised budget proposal next month. About $193 million of those funds would cover benefits for one year, while the rest would be for EDD expenses to get the program running, said Ouillette, with the Safety Net for All Coalition. [pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Ana Alfaro, house cleaner in San Francisco\"]‘Although we don’t have documents, we have rights to demand something better for our community. It’s so important that our undocumented community is not afraid and that we stand united.’[/pullquote]The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Taxpayers Association officially disapproved of the measure as of last month, arguing that the state’s unemployment system “does not have the financial ability to sustain any added benefits at this time.” But the association has since withdrawn its opposition, a spokesperson said, after clarifying the measure would not use money from the regular unemployment insurance fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, EDD projected it would need up to $237 million in one-time general funds to build an excluded workers program, with most of that funding going to a new tech platform to distribute the cash assistance. Ongoing administration costs were estimated at less than $23.1 million per year, according to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD is analyzing the potential price tag to implement the current bill, and does not have an updated estimate, an agency spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Colorado became the first state to approve ongoing unemployment benefits for unauthorized workers. That state, with a significantly smaller population of undocumented residents, established a new fund using part of a tax already imposed on employers. Initial estimates pegged the cost of establishing a new program at $55 million, but the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/90838985/colorado-is-about-to-launch-the-countrys-first-unemployment-fund-for-undocumented-immigrants\">actual expenses will be “tens of millions” lower, as reported by \u003cem>Fast Company\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California’s undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars in taxes annually but are excluded from government financial assistance when they lose their jobs through no fault of their own. As more natural disasters and economic downturns are expected to hit the state, labor advocates are pushing to include these workers in the economic safety net.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1682791987,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":26,"wordCount":1406},"headData":{"title":"'I've Been Contributing': Undocumented Workers Are Key to California's Economy. A New Bill Would Give Them Unemployment Benefits | KQED","description":"California’s undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars in taxes annually but are excluded from government financial assistance when they lose their jobs through no fault of their own. As more natural disasters and economic downturns are expected to hit the state, labor advocates are pushing to include these workers in the economic safety net.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"'I've Been Contributing': Undocumented Workers Are Key to California's Economy. A New Bill Would Give Them Unemployment Benefits","datePublished":"2023-04-14T01:30:25.000Z","dateModified":"2023-04-29T18:13:07.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/e94aae9f-d0e3-4fc3-837e-afe300ee71bb/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11946661/ive-been-contributing-undocumented-workers-are-key-to-californias-economy-a-new-bill-would-give-them-unemployment-benefits","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Several hundred demonstrators from around California converged Thursday at the state’s Capitol in support of a bill that would offer income assistance to workers who are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits because of their immigration status.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Safety Net for All Day of Action,” as dubbed by organizers, comes a month after a disastrous flood submerged vast expanses of berry and lettuce farmlands on the Central Coast and left \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11944008/we-have-nothing-pajaro-farmworkers-face-the-prospect-of-no-income-at-start-of-harvesting-season\">thousands of local agricultural workers — many of them undocumented — facing the prospect of no income for months\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As more natural disasters like this winter’s atmospheric-river fueled storms are expected to disrupt jobs, supporters of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB227\">SB 227\u003c/a> say it’s urgent for the state of California to fund an economic safety net for laid-off undocumented residents — instead of leaving nonprofits scrambling after every emergency to offer cash aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2.jpg\" alt=\"A photo from behind of a group of people marching. A sign depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe is being held up. It says Salud y Justicia Para Todos, Safety Net for All\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Advocates say it’s essential for California to fund a safety net program for undocumented workers, who play a key role in California’s agriculture, construction, retail trade and food services industries. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s just not a feasible solution, where we have over a million undocumented workers in the state,” said Kim Ouillette, attorney with \u003ca href=\"https://legalaidatwork.org/\">Legal Aid at Work\u003c/a>, an organization that is part of the \u003ca href=\"https://caimmigrant.org/what-we-do/policy/economic-justice/safety-net-for-all-bill/\">Safety Net for All Coalition\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Realizing that reality, it can’t just be left to piecework charity,” she said. “The state has an obligation to ensure that there’s a system in place that protects California workers that are major parts of significant industries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An estimated 1.1 million unauthorized immigrants labor in California, particularly in low-wage jobs in agriculture, construction, retail trade and food services. \u003ca href=\"https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/blog/post/?id=2770\">In agriculture, half of the state’s crop workforce lacks employment authorization\u003c/a>, as estimated by the U.S. Department of Labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf_pub_ctr/de8714b.pdf\">California’s unemployment insurance system is funded in part with dollars from the federal government (PDF)\u003c/a>, which renders unauthorized immigrants ineligible for those benefits. However, \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/essential_fairness.pdf\">the employers of those immigrants pay tax contributions to that same system — hundreds of millions of dollars each year — on their behalf (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to estimates by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11946687 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3.jpg\" alt='A sign that says \"Solo el Pueblo/Salva Al Pueblo\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers say unauthorized immigrants pay significant state and local taxes annually. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>SB 227 would direct the Employment Development Department, or EDD, to create an “Excluded Workers Program” offering eligible individuals $300 dollars weekly for up to 20 weeks, with funds that would come from state coffers only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the bill, California residents would be eligible for the benefits if they performed at least 93 hours of work or earned $1,300 or more in gross wages over the course of three months during the year before their application. That cash assistance would become available at the earliest by Jan. 1, 2025, and end by the start of 2027, according to the measure by Los Angeles state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates and workers pushing for the bill said they started organizing at the start of the pandemic, when the safety net gap became increasingly evident as undocumented residents in hard-hit industries lost income but were unable to access the unemployment benefits other workers had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946688\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11946688 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4.jpg\" alt=\"Three demonstrators, all wearing dark sweatshirts and face masks that obscure their faces, hold up a yellow sign with a bright, round insignia that says Mixteco/Indigeni Community Organizing Project, standing in the middle of a street with trees and high-rise buildings beyond them, on a blue-sky day.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1281\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_4-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hundreds gathered at the California state Capitol in support of SB 227, a bill that would offer unemployment benefits to undocumented workers, on Thursday, April 13, 2023. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s not fair. I’ve been contributing to the state,” said Luis Mejia, who has worked in California for 13 years. “We need the governor to sign this law proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 54-year-old car wash worker said losing his income for months during the pandemic — with no jobless benefits to rely on — was incredibly stressful. He fell hopelessly behind on rent and couldn’t send money to his two daughters in El Salvador.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those were moments that I would not wish on anyone else,” said Mejia, one of numerous Bay Area residents who woke up before dawn to ride a bus from San Francisco’s Civic Center to Sacramento with the organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.tuwu.org/\">Trabajadores Unidos Workers United\u003c/a>. “That’s why I’m taking measures so that on this trip to Sacramento, we tell Mr. Gavin Newsom that we are here. We are still in this fight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5.jpg\" alt=\"Demonstrators hold up a sign in front of the California State Capitol\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/SB_227_SafetyNet_5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under the bill, assistance for undocumented immigrants would begin Jan. 1, 2025. \u003ccite>(Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Legislature passed a similar bill last year, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AB-2847-VETO.pdf?emrc=87cd0d\">Gov. Newsom vetoed it (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing fiscal concerns. Those objections could be magnified this year, as the state faces a huge budget shortfall. While the administration \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4687\">projected the deficit at $22.5 billion, it could be about $7 billion larger\u003c/a>, according to a report last month by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, supporters of SB 227, which has become a top issue for the California Latino Legislative Caucus, argue that it’s a question of basic equity and justice. Unauthorized immigrants pay significant state and local taxes annually, to the tune of \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantdataca.org/indicators/economic-contributions?immig=3\">$3.72 billion in 2019\u003c/a>, researchers at the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute found. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","tag":"undocumented-workers"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes at \u003ca href=\"https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-budget-subcommittee-no-4-state-administration-20230328\">a budget subcommittee hearing on the proposal last month\u003c/a>. “They have been paying into the system, their employers have been paying their part of it. Yet none of those workers receive any of the benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the march near the Capitol, a crowd of hundreds of people who had traversed the state from the Coachella Valley, Fresno and other regions, filled the sidewalks. An accompanying band played corridos and cumbias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we don’t have documents, we have rights to demand something better for our community,” said marcher Ana Alfaro, a home cleaner from San Francisco who said she had to borrow money and rely on a food bank to feed her family as she lost several clients during the pandemic. “It’s so important that our undocumented community is not afraid and that we stand united.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill’s supporters are requesting Newsom include $356 million for its implementation in his revised budget proposal next month. About $193 million of those funds would cover benefits for one year, while the rest would be for EDD expenses to get the program running, said Ouillette, with the Safety Net for All Coalition. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘Although we don’t have documents, we have rights to demand something better for our community. It’s so important that our undocumented community is not afraid and that we stand united.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"left","citation":"Ana Alfaro, house cleaner in San Francisco","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Taxpayers Association officially disapproved of the measure as of last month, arguing that the state’s unemployment system “does not have the financial ability to sustain any added benefits at this time.” But the association has since withdrawn its opposition, a spokesperson said, after clarifying the measure would not use money from the regular unemployment insurance fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, EDD projected it would need up to $237 million in one-time general funds to build an excluded workers program, with most of that funding going to a new tech platform to distribute the cash assistance. Ongoing administration costs were estimated at less than $23.1 million per year, according to the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD is analyzing the potential price tag to implement the current bill, and does not have an updated estimate, an agency spokesperson told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Colorado became the first state to approve ongoing unemployment benefits for unauthorized workers. That state, with a significantly smaller population of undocumented residents, established a new fund using part of a tax already imposed on employers. Initial estimates pegged the cost of establishing a new program at $55 million, but the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fastcompany.com/90838985/colorado-is-about-to-launch-the-countrys-first-unemployment-fund-for-undocumented-immigrants\">actual expenses will be “tens of millions” lower, as reported by \u003cem>Fast Company\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11946661/ive-been-contributing-undocumented-workers-are-key-to-californias-economy-a-new-bill-would-give-them-unemployment-benefits","authors":["8659"],"categories":["news_1758","news_1169","news_8","news_13"],"tags":["news_18538","news_26563","news_20202","news_19904","news_25305","news_244","news_32380","news_30130","news_27765"],"featImg":"news_11946681","label":"news"},"news_11934096":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11934096","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11934096","score":null,"sort":[1670273586000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"is-californias-beleaguered-jobless-benefits-agency-ready-for-a-recession","title":"Is California's Beleaguered Jobless Benefits Agency Ready for a Recession?","publishDate":1670273586,"format":"standard","headTitle":"CALmatters | KQED News","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>A cascade of tech layoffs, the strain of inflation and news of potentially recession-inducing decisions from federal bankers could spell tough economic times ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If more people are laid off, more Californians will turn to unemployment benefits to help them afford the basics while they look for a new job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a process that buckled under the pressures of the pandemic. Residents sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfweekly.com/news/a-bureaucratic-nightmare-on-hold-with-the-edd/\">waited months for benefits \u003c/a>from the state’s Employment Development Department, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-11/california-covid-19-coronavirus-unemployment-calls-issues\">dialing the department hundreds of times\u003c/a>. On top of that was a string of fraud scandals: Claims came from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/david-goldstein-possible-edd-fraud-claims-for-minors/\">\"unemployed\" infants and children\u003c/a> and, according to prosecutors, benefits were paid to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2020/11/california-edd-fraud-claims-inmates/\">tens of thousands of incarcerated people\u003c/a> in jail and prison, who are ineligible. The \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/handouts/state_admin/2022/UI-Report-Overview-092822.pdf#page=4\">vast majority of the fraud (PDF)\u003c/a> was in temporary, federally funded pandemic aid programs.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gareth Lacy, communications advisor, California Employment Development Department\"]'[Thanks to] the level of testing that the pandemic put us through, we are in such a strong position to weather a typical economic contraction.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation has since improved. But how will the system hold up if there’s a recession?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to “the level of testing that the pandemic put us through, we are in such a strong position to weather a typical economic contraction,” said Gareth Lacy, communications advisor at the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is convinced. “There have been some major improvements,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But I think we’re not at the point where if a major crisis hit the unemployment system again, the system would be able to function as it should.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recession would probably look different from the shocking early months of the pandemic, when claims for new benefits jumped tenfold from February to March of 2020, according to department data. One point of comparison: There were 20 million claims for unemployment benefits during the pandemic and just 3.8 million during the Great Recession, according to Lacy. And during the pandemic, the challenge for the department wasn’t just dealing with the surge of claims; it also had to implement new federal aid programs.[aside postID=\"news_11922036,news_11922059,news_11929471\" label=\"Related Posts\"]The incredible wave of people applying in a matter of weeks was “extreme,” said Till von Wachter, economics professor at UCLA. Normal recessions are more gradual, he said, so the number of claims the department has to process per week would likely be lower. “They just went through trial by fire,” von Wachter said. He’s optimistic that the department would be able to better deal with a recession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, if the agency struggles to keep up with the demands of a recession, it wouldn’t be the first time. In the wake of the recession that began in 2008, reports emerged that checks were delayed due to outdated computers, and exasperated workers were met with busy phone lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Inside the department's recession plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2021, state lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB390\">required the department to come up with a recession plan\u003c/a>; the result is a nearly \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/sb-390-recession-plan---edd-report.pdf\">90-page report (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One change, the report explains, is that the department created a new team tasked with forecasting unemployment benefit-related workloads and figuring how many staff would be needed. The report also details how the department would adapt if the unemployment rate reached specific levels. California’s unemployment rate is currently around 4%, but if, for example, it ticked up to 6%, the plan includes authorizing overtime, reducing vacation slots during peak periods, and limiting the approval of part-time requests. If it reached 8%, the department would hire additional staff and “deploy retired annuitants.” If it reached 12%, it would be time to call in the contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report says pulling all this off is challenging because federal funding for unemployment benefit administration is tied to an actual — not anticipated — workload.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has made some other changes that could smooth the process of getting benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Californians whose primary language is not English, expanded multilingual services should make it easier to navigate the system. “Individuals who are not fluent in English face insurmountable barriers to receiving assistance,” found a \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 \"strike team\" report (PDF)\u003c/a>. In a February \u003ca href=\"https://lafla.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LAFLA-et-al.-v.-EDD-Stipulated-Settlement-Agreement.pdf\">settlement with several advocacy groups (PDF)\u003c/a>, the department agreed to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Provide real-time spoken and signed language services for workers in any language they need.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Add dedicated phone lines for Korean, Tagalog and Armenian speakers in addition to existing lines serving Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese speakers.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Translate all important unemployment benefits documents in the top 15 non-English languages used in the state by the end of 2022.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A new section of the unemployment benefits website now provides forms and other information translated into eight languages, plus \u003ca href=\"https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Simplified_Chinese_character\">simplified Chinese\u003c/a>. The expansion came after a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB138\">legislative push to add multilingual services for unemployment benefits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another recent change addresses what happens if you start getting benefits, and then your eligibility is called into question. In the past if, in the course of filling out forms to prove your ongoing eligibility, you indicate that you worked one day, or were sick one day — two things that could disqualify you from receiving benefits — the department would stop sending payments until it determined whether you were still eligible, which could require an interview, said Urban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the height of the pandemic, [the department] was so behind the determinations [that] people were waiting 15, 16 or more weeks for these determinations,” and in the meantime, they weren’t receiving any benefits, Urban said. Now, if the agency can’t determine whether you’re eligible within 14 days, it will keep paying benefits while they sort out the issue, Urban said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been other \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf/edd-2021-year-in-review_v06.pdf\">customer service tweaks over the past couple of years (PDF)\u003c/a>, including adding a callback feature on call center phone lines so that people don’t have to wait on hold, improving the mobile phone version of the website, and enabling claimants to upload documents, rather than requiring them to physically mail them in, according to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department has also begun a multiyear modernization effort, dubbed EDDNext, aimed at improving customer service for unemployment benefits, paid family leave, and disability insurance, for which the department received $136 million this year. So far, the department has begun designing a new online login that will work for unemployment benefits as well as paid family leave and disability insurance, and designing forms that are easier to read and understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a recession, some workers can’t turn to unemployment benefits. That includes the self-employed, who generally aren’t covered by unemployment benefits, said Jenna Gerry, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project. The federal government created temporary benefits for self-employed workers and contractors during the pandemic, but that ended in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another large group that will find itself without unemployment benefits if a recession hits is undocumented workers — despite a major push from advocates and a bill passed by the Legislature. Under federal law, undocumented workers can’t get traditional unemployment benefits, said Gerry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, worker and immigrant advocates pushed for a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">new pilot program\u003c/a> that would have provided unemployment-like benefits to noncitizen workers — an \u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-234\">idea Colorado lawmakers embraced this year\u003c/a>. But California legislators didn’t provide funding for the program in the state budget, said Sasha Feldstein, economic justice policy director for the California Immigrant Policy Center. Curiously, they then passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2847\">a bill\u003c/a> that laid out how the program would work, but which didn’t include funding, and Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AB-2847-VETO.pdf?emrc=87cd0d\">vetoed the bill (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing, in part, the absence of “a dedicated funding source.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An $18 billion-dollar problem\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another consequence of a recession could be the growth of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/03/california-unemployment-debt/\">California’s already massive unemployment debt\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s unemployment insurance trust fund ran out of money during the pandemic, after so many laid-off Californians relied on the benefits. The federal government loaned California billions to keep benefits flowing, and the state still is on the hook to pay back about $18 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s debt is uniquely large. While many states had to turn to the feds to pay out benefits during the pandemic, at this point just California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois and the Virgin Islands still have debt. California’s debt is roughly double the size of the other four combined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the system has gone into debt. In the wake of the Great Recession, the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4442\">debt grew to about $10 billion\u003c/a>. California didn’t finish paying it off until the spring of 2018, according to H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the Finance Department, and the state spent about $1.4 billion on interest on the Great Recession era unemployment debt, according to Palmer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment benefits are funded by employers, and to pay off the current debt, a federal tax on employers will automatically increase by $21 per employee in 2023, and ratchet up by an additional $21 per employee per year until the loan is repaid. This year state lawmakers also decided to kick in $250 million in state funds toward the loan principal and $342.4 million to cover the interest accrued so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the state goes into a recession, that debt could grow even larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there is a slowdown in the economy, we are totally and completely unprepared to be able to provide for California workers because of the deficit,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which represents major employers and has advocated for the state to contribute $10 billion to pay down the loan principal. “There may not be an interest in Congress to bail out California and New York,” Lapsley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it would be unprecedented for the federal government to let a state’s unemployment system run out of money and stop providing benefits, said Gerry, with the National Employment Law Project. “That has never happened in the history of the unemployment insurance program since it was enacted in 1935.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that there’s a real threat that no benefits will be available,” Gerry said. But having a system that repeatedly goes into debt means that taxpayers get stuck with an avoidable bill. And, Gerry said, “if we had more money in our trust fund, it would be easier to make the case that we could enhance benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California's Employment Development Department struggled to keep up with the demands of the pandemic. But the department has made several changes that could smooth the process of getting benefits.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1670302426,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":32,"wordCount":1812},"headData":{"title":"Is California's Beleaguered Jobless Benefits Agency Ready for a Recession? | KQED","description":"California's Employment Development Department struggled to keep up with the demands of the pandemic. But the department has made several changes that could smooth the process of getting benefits.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Is California's Beleaguered Jobless Benefits Agency Ready for a Recession?","datePublished":"2022-12-05T20:53:06.000Z","dateModified":"2022-12-06T04:53:46.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"CalMatters","sourceUrl":"https://calmatters.org/","nprByline":"Grace Gedye","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/news/11934096/is-californias-beleaguered-jobless-benefits-agency-ready-for-a-recession","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A cascade of tech layoffs, the strain of inflation and news of potentially recession-inducing decisions from federal bankers could spell tough economic times ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If more people are laid off, more Californians will turn to unemployment benefits to help them afford the basics while they look for a new job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a process that buckled under the pressures of the pandemic. Residents sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfweekly.com/news/a-bureaucratic-nightmare-on-hold-with-the-edd/\">waited months for benefits \u003c/a>from the state’s Employment Development Department, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-11/california-covid-19-coronavirus-unemployment-calls-issues\">dialing the department hundreds of times\u003c/a>. On top of that was a string of fraud scandals: Claims came from \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/david-goldstein-possible-edd-fraud-claims-for-minors/\">\"unemployed\" infants and children\u003c/a> and, according to prosecutors, benefits were paid to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2020/11/california-edd-fraud-claims-inmates/\">tens of thousands of incarcerated people\u003c/a> in jail and prison, who are ineligible. The \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/handouts/state_admin/2022/UI-Report-Overview-092822.pdf#page=4\">vast majority of the fraud (PDF)\u003c/a> was in temporary, federally funded pandemic aid programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'[Thanks to] the level of testing that the pandemic put us through, we are in such a strong position to weather a typical economic contraction.'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Gareth Lacy, communications advisor, California Employment Development Department","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation has since improved. But how will the system hold up if there’s a recession?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to “the level of testing that the pandemic put us through, we are in such a strong position to weather a typical economic contraction,” said Gareth Lacy, communications advisor at the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone is convinced. “There have been some major improvements,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But I think we’re not at the point where if a major crisis hit the unemployment system again, the system would be able to function as it should.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recession would probably look different from the shocking early months of the pandemic, when claims for new benefits jumped tenfold from February to March of 2020, according to department data. One point of comparison: There were 20 million claims for unemployment benefits during the pandemic and just 3.8 million during the Great Recession, according to Lacy. And during the pandemic, the challenge for the department wasn’t just dealing with the surge of claims; it also had to implement new federal aid programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11922036,news_11922059,news_11929471","label":"Related Posts "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The incredible wave of people applying in a matter of weeks was “extreme,” said Till von Wachter, economics professor at UCLA. Normal recessions are more gradual, he said, so the number of claims the department has to process per week would likely be lower. “They just went through trial by fire,” von Wachter said. He’s optimistic that the department would be able to better deal with a recession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, if the agency struggles to keep up with the demands of a recession, it wouldn’t be the first time. In the wake of the recession that began in 2008, reports emerged that checks were delayed due to outdated computers, and exasperated workers were met with busy phone lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Inside the department's recession plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2021, state lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB390\">required the department to come up with a recession plan\u003c/a>; the result is a nearly \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/sb-390-recession-plan---edd-report.pdf\">90-page report (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One change, the report explains, is that the department created a new team tasked with forecasting unemployment benefit-related workloads and figuring how many staff would be needed. The report also details how the department would adapt if the unemployment rate reached specific levels. California’s unemployment rate is currently around 4%, but if, for example, it ticked up to 6%, the plan includes authorizing overtime, reducing vacation slots during peak periods, and limiting the approval of part-time requests. If it reached 8%, the department would hire additional staff and “deploy retired annuitants.” If it reached 12%, it would be time to call in the contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report says pulling all this off is challenging because federal funding for unemployment benefit administration is tied to an actual — not anticipated — workload.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has made some other changes that could smooth the process of getting benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Californians whose primary language is not English, expanded multilingual services should make it easier to navigate the system. “Individuals who are not fluent in English face insurmountable barriers to receiving assistance,” found a \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 \"strike team\" report (PDF)\u003c/a>. In a February \u003ca href=\"https://lafla.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/LAFLA-et-al.-v.-EDD-Stipulated-Settlement-Agreement.pdf\">settlement with several advocacy groups (PDF)\u003c/a>, the department agreed to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Provide real-time spoken and signed language services for workers in any language they need.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Add dedicated phone lines for Korean, Tagalog and Armenian speakers in addition to existing lines serving Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese speakers.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Translate all important unemployment benefits documents in the top 15 non-English languages used in the state by the end of 2022.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A new section of the unemployment benefits website now provides forms and other information translated into eight languages, plus \u003ca href=\"https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Simplified_Chinese_character\">simplified Chinese\u003c/a>. The expansion came after a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB138\">legislative push to add multilingual services for unemployment benefits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another recent change addresses what happens if you start getting benefits, and then your eligibility is called into question. In the past if, in the course of filling out forms to prove your ongoing eligibility, you indicate that you worked one day, or were sick one day — two things that could disqualify you from receiving benefits — the department would stop sending payments until it determined whether you were still eligible, which could require an interview, said Urban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the height of the pandemic, [the department] was so behind the determinations [that] people were waiting 15, 16 or more weeks for these determinations,” and in the meantime, they weren’t receiving any benefits, Urban said. Now, if the agency can’t determine whether you’re eligible within 14 days, it will keep paying benefits while they sort out the issue, Urban said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been other \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf/edd-2021-year-in-review_v06.pdf\">customer service tweaks over the past couple of years (PDF)\u003c/a>, including adding a callback feature on call center phone lines so that people don’t have to wait on hold, improving the mobile phone version of the website, and enabling claimants to upload documents, rather than requiring them to physically mail them in, according to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department has also begun a multiyear modernization effort, dubbed EDDNext, aimed at improving customer service for unemployment benefits, paid family leave, and disability insurance, for which the department received $136 million this year. So far, the department has begun designing a new online login that will work for unemployment benefits as well as paid family leave and disability insurance, and designing forms that are easier to read and understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a recession, some workers can’t turn to unemployment benefits. That includes the self-employed, who generally aren’t covered by unemployment benefits, said Jenna Gerry, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project. The federal government created temporary benefits for self-employed workers and contractors during the pandemic, but that ended in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another large group that will find itself without unemployment benefits if a recession hits is undocumented workers — despite a major push from advocates and a bill passed by the Legislature. Under federal law, undocumented workers can’t get traditional unemployment benefits, said Gerry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, worker and immigrant advocates pushed for a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">new pilot program\u003c/a> that would have provided unemployment-like benefits to noncitizen workers — an \u003ca href=\"https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-234\">idea Colorado lawmakers embraced this year\u003c/a>. But California legislators didn’t provide funding for the program in the state budget, said Sasha Feldstein, economic justice policy director for the California Immigrant Policy Center. Curiously, they then passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2847\">a bill\u003c/a> that laid out how the program would work, but which didn’t include funding, and Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AB-2847-VETO.pdf?emrc=87cd0d\">vetoed the bill (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing, in part, the absence of “a dedicated funding source.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>An $18 billion-dollar problem\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another consequence of a recession could be the growth of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/03/california-unemployment-debt/\">California’s already massive unemployment debt\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s unemployment insurance trust fund ran out of money during the pandemic, after so many laid-off Californians relied on the benefits. The federal government loaned California billions to keep benefits flowing, and the state still is on the hook to pay back about $18 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s debt is uniquely large. While many states had to turn to the feds to pay out benefits during the pandemic, at this point just California, New York, Connecticut, Illinois and the Virgin Islands still have debt. California’s debt is roughly double the size of the other four combined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the system has gone into debt. In the wake of the Great Recession, the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4442\">debt grew to about $10 billion\u003c/a>. California didn’t finish paying it off until the spring of 2018, according to H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the Finance Department, and the state spent about $1.4 billion on interest on the Great Recession era unemployment debt, according to Palmer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment benefits are funded by employers, and to pay off the current debt, a federal tax on employers will automatically increase by $21 per employee in 2023, and ratchet up by an additional $21 per employee per year until the loan is repaid. This year state lawmakers also decided to kick in $250 million in state funds toward the loan principal and $342.4 million to cover the interest accrued so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the state goes into a recession, that debt could grow even larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there is a slowdown in the economy, we are totally and completely unprepared to be able to provide for California workers because of the deficit,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which represents major employers and has advocated for the state to contribute $10 billion to pay down the loan principal. “There may not be an interest in Congress to bail out California and New York,” Lapsley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it would be unprecedented for the federal government to let a state’s unemployment system run out of money and stop providing benefits, said Gerry, with the National Employment Law Project. “That has never happened in the history of the unemployment insurance program since it was enacted in 1935.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think that there’s a real threat that no benefits will be available,” Gerry said. But having a system that repeatedly goes into debt means that taxpayers get stuck with an avoidable bill. And, Gerry said, “if we had more money in our trust fund, it would be easier to make the case that we could enhance benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11934096/is-californias-beleaguered-jobless-benefits-agency-ready-for-a-recession","authors":["byline_news_11934096"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_32094","news_32095","news_28844","news_30130"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11934101","label":"source_news_11934096"},"news_11922059":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11922059","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11922059","score":null,"sort":[1660088063000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"why-are-california-unemployment-checks-so-hard-to-get-new-report-has-ideas","title":"Why Are California Unemployment Checks So Hard to Get? New Report Has Ideas","publishDate":1660088063,"format":"standard","headTitle":"CALmatters | KQED News","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>If you get laid off, there’s a system that’s supposed to help you get by: unemployment benefits. Whenever California stares down a pandemic or a possible recession, the partial wage-replacement program is one of the most important economic safeguards for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the benefits have become more difficult for workers to access, due to the program’s design and decisions made by California’s embattled Employment Development Department. That’s according to an\u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2022/4615/Improving-CA-UI-Program-080822.pdf\"> in-depth report released Monday from the Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>, a nonpartisan agency that provides advice to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report found that the benefits program’s orientation toward businesses — which fund the benefits and have an incentive to keep costs down — led the department to emphasize holding down costs. Pressure from the federal government to avoid errors led the department to try, however successfully, to minimize fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result, according to the report: The department pursued lowering costs and hindering fraud over making it easy for workers to access benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looked at individually, one of these policies might seem totally reasonable, either to limit fraud or to minimize business costs,” said Chas Alamo, the report’s author and principal fiscal and policy analyst with the Legislative Analyst’s Office. “But when you look at them, and kind of step back and look at the suite of policies that have been made over several decades, it becomes clear that there’s a sort of imbalance in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office directed questions about the report to the Employment Development Department, saying it was best suited to talk about the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department spokesperson Gareth Lacy wrote in a statement that EDD “appreciates and will carefully review the LAO’s ideas for further simplifying processes and speeding up the delivery of services to Californians. Many of these ideas, such as limiting improper claim denials and minimizing delays, have been incorporated into \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf/edd-2021-year-in-review_v06.pdf\">EDD actions over the past year.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lacy also pointed to a modernization push at the department to improve call centers, simplify forms and notices, including user testing, developing data analysis tools to continue curbing fraud, and upgrading department training to increase the pace of application processing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"unemployment\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in the COVID pandemic as joblessness rates soared, the department \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-unemployment-benefits/\">struggled to keep up with a surge of benefits claims\u003c/a> — leaving some Californians repeatedly calling the department in frustration and waiting weeks or months for the money to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came sensational reports that the department had paid out as much as\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/10/california-edd-fixes/?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=785df30e77-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-785df30e77-151436580&mc_cid=785df30e77&mc_eid=582122f089\"> $20 billion in fraudulent benefits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last December, the department froze 345,000 disability insurance claims due to suspected fraud. As it tried to root out disability benefits fraud, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/06/edd-disability-calls/?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=785df30e77-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-785df30e77-151436580&mc_cid=785df30e77&mc_eid=582122f089\">calls to the department with questions surged\u003c/a>, and many went unanswered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite an increase in fraud during the pandemic, fraud has historically been uncommon in California’s unemployment benefits, likely “representing less than 1 percent of claims,” the report found. The vast majority of fraud that occurred during the pandemic was concentrated in a temporary federal program that has now ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report lays out evidence that unemployment benefits have become too difficult for workers to access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When workers are denied benefits, for example, they’re allowed to file appeals. The report found that more than half of denials are overturned on appeal, meaning those workers should have gotten the benefits in the first place. By contrast, “less than one-quarter are overturned in the rest of the country,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also slowing the process: extensive, and sometimes confusing, steps to prove eligibility for California unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s actions during the pandemic suggest that getting payments to workers is not its highest priority, the report said. For example, the department disqualified about 1 in 4 unemployment benefits claims during the pandemic for failing to respond to the department’s requests for additional information — or because the department was not able to process the additional information provided in the allotted time frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">a September 2020 report\u003c/a> written by a strike team assembled by Gov. Gavin Newsom found that during the same period, each department field office “had an estimated 450 pounds of unopened mail and had no system for processing unopened mail. Further, at the state’s call centers, less than 1 percent of callers reached an EDD staff member.”[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"Jim Patterson, Republican state assemblymember from Fresno\"]'We're just seeing the result of a bureaucratic system that wasn't capable of doing its fundamental mission.'[/pullquote]The Legislative Analyst’s Office report also revealed that the Employment Development Department mischaracterized the number of people seeking jobless benefits that it was disqualifying or denying in reports to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the start of the pandemic to June 30, 2021, the department sent weekly dispatches to the Legislature. During that period, the department reported that it had disqualified or denied 705,000 unemployment benefits claims, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office's report. But the LAO found that the department disqualified at least 3.4 million during that period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about this discrepancy, the department said it had interpreted the requirement to report to the Legislature to mean the number of people who were found not to qualify under state and federal eligibility rules, and so it did not report the number of people being disqualified by procedural rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People should get fired for this,” said Jim Patterson, a Republican state assemblymember from Fresno, citing how the Legislature was misled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report corroborated what Patterson already sensed, he said — his office has helped about 3,000 constituents who had problems with the department. Through that process, he added, he saw how confounding the communication from the department to unemployed people sometimes is. “They write to constituents as if they’re creating a treatise for a master’s degree in confusion,” Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just seeing the result of a bureaucratic system that wasn’t capable of doing its fundamental mission,” Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LAO’s report makes over a dozen suggestions to remedy the issues it identifies, including recommendations for how to limit improper claim denials, minimize delays and simplify benefits applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature is investing in modernizing the system and bolstering cybersecurity resilience, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat from Costa Mesa who chairs the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, said in a statement. She added that she hoped that would lead to “major advances in how quickly the department can assess threats and resolve claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making sure unemployment benefits work effectively isn’t just important for workers who have been laid off — it’s important for the whole economy, said Irena Asmundson, a research scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and former chief economist for California’s Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If people who lose their jobs in an economic downturn don’t have unemployment benefits, she said, then they have to pull back on their spending — making a bad situation worse. So unemployment benefits are meant to act as a stabilizer, giving laid-off workers some money to spend and blunting a downward spiral for the whole economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report “misunderstands EDD’s recent activities to improve the process, and the deeper problems with [unemployment insurance] that go beyond the issues referenced in the report,” said former department director Michael Bernick, who is now special counsel with Duane Morris, a law firm. Bernick, who has also worked as a volunteer helping people who are trying to get benefits over the past two years, agrees that the process is too complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many of the anti-fraud measures that the report blames for slowing down payments are required by federal protocols, Bernick wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The truth is that EDD must balance rapid payout and anti-fraud — a process that has become increasingly difficult with the heightened sophistication of identity theft rings, and the amount of money going through the system,” Bernick said. He added that newer measures to combat identity theft, including the addition of online verification tool ID.me, are on the right path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/08/california-unemployment-benefits-3/\">This story originally appeared in CalMatters.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A new report says California's unemployment benefits program must make fast distribution a higher priority.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1660088063,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":33,"wordCount":1426},"headData":{"title":"Why Are California Unemployment Checks So Hard to Get? New Report Has Ideas | KQED","description":"The result, according to the report: The department pursued lowering costs and hindering fraud over making it easy for workers to access benefits.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Why Are California Unemployment Checks So Hard to Get? New Report Has Ideas","datePublished":"2022-08-09T23:34:23.000Z","dateModified":"2022-08-09T23:34:23.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"disqusIdentifier":"11922059 https://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11922059","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2022/08/09/why-are-california-unemployment-checks-so-hard-to-get-new-report-has-ideas/","disqusTitle":"Why Are California Unemployment Checks So Hard to Get? New Report Has Ideas","nprByline":"Grace Gedye","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/news/11922059/why-are-california-unemployment-checks-so-hard-to-get-new-report-has-ideas","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you get laid off, there’s a system that’s supposed to help you get by: unemployment benefits. Whenever California stares down a pandemic or a possible recession, the partial wage-replacement program is one of the most important economic safeguards for workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the benefits have become more difficult for workers to access, due to the program’s design and decisions made by California’s embattled Employment Development Department. That’s according to an\u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2022/4615/Improving-CA-UI-Program-080822.pdf\"> in-depth report released Monday from the Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>, a nonpartisan agency that provides advice to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report found that the benefits program’s orientation toward businesses — which fund the benefits and have an incentive to keep costs down — led the department to emphasize holding down costs. Pressure from the federal government to avoid errors led the department to try, however successfully, to minimize fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result, according to the report: The department pursued lowering costs and hindering fraud over making it easy for workers to access benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looked at individually, one of these policies might seem totally reasonable, either to limit fraud or to minimize business costs,” said Chas Alamo, the report’s author and principal fiscal and policy analyst with the Legislative Analyst’s Office. “But when you look at them, and kind of step back and look at the suite of policies that have been made over several decades, it becomes clear that there’s a sort of imbalance in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office directed questions about the report to the Employment Development Department, saying it was best suited to talk about the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department spokesperson Gareth Lacy wrote in a statement that EDD “appreciates and will carefully review the LAO’s ideas for further simplifying processes and speeding up the delivery of services to Californians. Many of these ideas, such as limiting improper claim denials and minimizing delays, have been incorporated into \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/pdf/edd-2021-year-in-review_v06.pdf\">EDD actions over the past year.\u003c/a>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lacy also pointed to a modernization push at the department to improve call centers, simplify forms and notices, including user testing, developing data analysis tools to continue curbing fraud, and upgrading department training to increase the pace of application processing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","tag":"unemployment"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in the COVID pandemic as joblessness rates soared, the department \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-unemployment-benefits/\">struggled to keep up with a surge of benefits claims\u003c/a> — leaving some Californians repeatedly calling the department in frustration and waiting weeks or months for the money to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came sensational reports that the department had paid out as much as\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/10/california-edd-fixes/?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=785df30e77-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-785df30e77-151436580&mc_cid=785df30e77&mc_eid=582122f089\"> $20 billion in fraudulent benefits\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last December, the department froze 345,000 disability insurance claims due to suspected fraud. As it tried to root out disability benefits fraud, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/06/edd-disability-calls/?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&utm_campaign=785df30e77-WHATMATTERS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_faa7be558d-785df30e77-151436580&mc_cid=785df30e77&mc_eid=582122f089\">calls to the department with questions surged\u003c/a>, and many went unanswered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite an increase in fraud during the pandemic, fraud has historically been uncommon in California’s unemployment benefits, likely “representing less than 1 percent of claims,” the report found. The vast majority of fraud that occurred during the pandemic was concentrated in a temporary federal program that has now ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report lays out evidence that unemployment benefits have become too difficult for workers to access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When workers are denied benefits, for example, they’re allowed to file appeals. The report found that more than half of denials are overturned on appeal, meaning those workers should have gotten the benefits in the first place. By contrast, “less than one-quarter are overturned in the rest of the country,” the report found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also slowing the process: extensive, and sometimes confusing, steps to prove eligibility for California unemployment benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s actions during the pandemic suggest that getting payments to workers is not its highest priority, the report said. For example, the department disqualified about 1 in 4 unemployment benefits claims during the pandemic for failing to respond to the department’s requests for additional information — or because the department was not able to process the additional information provided in the allotted time frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">a September 2020 report\u003c/a> written by a strike team assembled by Gov. Gavin Newsom found that during the same period, each department field office “had an estimated 450 pounds of unopened mail and had no system for processing unopened mail. Further, at the state’s call centers, less than 1 percent of callers reached an EDD staff member.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'We're just seeing the result of a bureaucratic system that wasn't capable of doing its fundamental mission.'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"left","citation":"Jim Patterson, Republican state assemblymember from Fresno","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Legislative Analyst’s Office report also revealed that the Employment Development Department mischaracterized the number of people seeking jobless benefits that it was disqualifying or denying in reports to the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the start of the pandemic to June 30, 2021, the department sent weekly dispatches to the Legislature. During that period, the department reported that it had disqualified or denied 705,000 unemployment benefits claims, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office's report. But the LAO found that the department disqualified at least 3.4 million during that period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about this discrepancy, the department said it had interpreted the requirement to report to the Legislature to mean the number of people who were found not to qualify under state and federal eligibility rules, and so it did not report the number of people being disqualified by procedural rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People should get fired for this,” said Jim Patterson, a Republican state assemblymember from Fresno, citing how the Legislature was misled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report corroborated what Patterson already sensed, he said — his office has helped about 3,000 constituents who had problems with the department. Through that process, he added, he saw how confounding the communication from the department to unemployed people sometimes is. “They write to constituents as if they’re creating a treatise for a master’s degree in confusion,” Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just seeing the result of a bureaucratic system that wasn’t capable of doing its fundamental mission,” Patterson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The LAO’s report makes over a dozen suggestions to remedy the issues it identifies, including recommendations for how to limit improper claim denials, minimize delays and simplify benefits applications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature is investing in modernizing the system and bolstering cybersecurity resilience, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat from Costa Mesa who chairs the Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review, said in a statement. She added that she hoped that would lead to “major advances in how quickly the department can assess threats and resolve claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making sure unemployment benefits work effectively isn’t just important for workers who have been laid off — it’s important for the whole economy, said Irena Asmundson, a research scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and former chief economist for California’s Department of Finance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If people who lose their jobs in an economic downturn don’t have unemployment benefits, she said, then they have to pull back on their spending — making a bad situation worse. So unemployment benefits are meant to act as a stabilizer, giving laid-off workers some money to spend and blunting a downward spiral for the whole economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report “misunderstands EDD’s recent activities to improve the process, and the deeper problems with [unemployment insurance] that go beyond the issues referenced in the report,” said former department director Michael Bernick, who is now special counsel with Duane Morris, a law firm. Bernick, who has also worked as a volunteer helping people who are trying to get benefits over the past two years, agrees that the process is too complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet many of the anti-fraud measures that the report blames for slowing down payments are required by federal protocols, Bernick wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The truth is that EDD must balance rapid payout and anti-fraud — a process that has become increasingly difficult with the heightened sophistication of identity theft rings, and the amount of money going through the system,” Bernick said. He added that newer measures to combat identity theft, including the addition of online verification tool ID.me, are on the right path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/08/california-unemployment-benefits-3/\">This story originally appeared in CalMatters.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11922059/why-are-california-unemployment-checks-so-hard-to-get-new-report-has-ideas","authors":["byline_news_11922059"],"categories":["news_1758","news_8"],"tags":["news_3651","news_28339","news_28340","news_27914","news_830","news_631","news_30130","news_29254"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11922073","label":"news_18481"},"news_11907155":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11907155","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11907155","score":null,"sort":[1646421379000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"californias-undocumented-workers-would-get-unemployment-benefits-under-new-bill","title":"California's Undocumented Workers Would Get Unemployment Benefits Under New Bill","publishDate":1646421379,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The California Report | KQED News","labelTerm":{"term":72,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Dozens of immigrant and worker rights advocates rallied in Sacramento on Thursday for the creation of a temporary wage replacement program for California's undocumented immigrants who become unemployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People without work permits are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits, even though they comprise a significant portion of the state’s labor force in key industries such as agriculture and construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As businesses closed during the pandemic, undocumented immigrants who lost their jobs were often left with no income to pay for rent and other basic needs. But they were ineligible for most federal public benefit programs and COVID-19 relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Maria Venegas, indigenous Maya immigrant from Mexico\"]'I came to support this bill not just for me but for our community ... so we don’t go through the same crisis again of losing our jobs without having access to any unemployment benefits'[/pullquote]A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2847\">new California bill\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) would create the first-ever pilot program to offer $300 per week for up to 20 weeks to workers who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits because they are undocumented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's time for California to take the lead on this issue, upholding California's values and taking care of all Californians – not just some, but all Californians,” said Garcia, who represents a largely Latino district in eastern Riverside and Imperial counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Excluded Workers Pilot Program will rightfully provide unemployment benefits to workers who have earned them, but are ineligible due to their documentation status,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal, AB 2847, would task the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency with administering the income assistance, which would be offered next year at a cost of $690 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would also require the agency to recommend plans to establish a permanent unemployment insurance benefit program for undocumented Californians by Aug. 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, people without lawful immigration status contribute an estimated $3 billion per year in local and state taxes, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11907211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign.jpg\" alt=\"baby in stroller with pacifier in her mouth holds sign\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1655\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-800x690.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-1020x879.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-160x138.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-1536x1324.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ayla Arroyo, 1, from Orange County holds a sign in Spanish that reads 'Safety Net for All Coalition,' at a rally at the state Capitol on March 3, 2022. A coalition of more than 100 California organizations is calling for unemployment benefits for undocumented workers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Sumeet Bal, California Immigrant Policy Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maria Venegas, one of the speakers at the Sacramento rally, said she lost her job at a restaurant in San Francisco early in the pandemic and remained unemployed for several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venegas remembers having to explain to her two sons, ages 10 and 15, that they had run out of money to pay rent. The family relied on food banks to survive and was ultimately evicted, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I sacrificed so much to be able to support my children,” said Venegas, an indigenous Maya immigrant from Mexico. “I came to support this bill not just for me but for our community ... so we don’t go through the same crisis again of losing our jobs without having access to any unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11906868]More than 5.2 million Californians were either undocumented or lived in a household with an undocumented person in 2018, according to census data analyzed by researchers at the University of Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The bill would create the first-ever pilot program to offer $300 per week for up to 20 weeks to workers who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits because of their immigration status.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1648843247,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":565},"headData":{"title":"California's Undocumented Workers Would Get Unemployment Benefits Under New Bill | KQED","description":"The bill would create the first-ever pilot program to offer $300 per week for up to 20 weeks to workers who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits because of their immigration status.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"California's Undocumented Workers Would Get Unemployment Benefits Under New Bill","datePublished":"2022-03-04T19:16:19.000Z","dateModified":"2022-04-01T20:00:47.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"disqusIdentifier":"11907155 https://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11907155","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2022/03/04/californias-undocumented-workers-would-get-unemployment-benefits-under-new-bill/","disqusTitle":"California's Undocumented Workers Would Get Unemployment Benefits Under New Bill","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/363cce14-9a2b-498d-86ae-ae4e014f7fd8/audio.mp3","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","path":"/news/11907155/californias-undocumented-workers-would-get-unemployment-benefits-under-new-bill","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Dozens of immigrant and worker rights advocates rallied in Sacramento on Thursday for the creation of a temporary wage replacement program for California's undocumented immigrants who become unemployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People without work permits are excluded from unemployment insurance benefits, even though they comprise a significant portion of the state’s labor force in key industries such as agriculture and construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As businesses closed during the pandemic, undocumented immigrants who lost their jobs were often left with no income to pay for rent and other basic needs. But they were ineligible for most federal public benefit programs and COVID-19 relief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'I came to support this bill not just for me but for our community ... so we don’t go through the same crisis again of losing our jobs without having access to any unemployment benefits'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Maria Venegas, indigenous Maya immigrant from Mexico","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2847\">new California bill\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) would create the first-ever pilot program to offer $300 per week for up to 20 weeks to workers who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits because they are undocumented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's time for California to take the lead on this issue, upholding California's values and taking care of all Californians – not just some, but all Californians,” said Garcia, who represents a largely Latino district in eastern Riverside and Imperial counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Excluded Workers Pilot Program will rightfully provide unemployment benefits to workers who have earned them, but are ineligible due to their documentation status,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal, AB 2847, would task the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency with administering the income assistance, which would be offered next year at a cost of $690 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill would also require the agency to recommend plans to establish a permanent unemployment insurance benefit program for undocumented Californians by Aug. 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, people without lawful immigration status contribute an estimated $3 billion per year in local and state taxes, according to the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11907211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign.jpg\" alt=\"baby in stroller with pacifier in her mouth holds sign\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1655\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-800x690.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-1020x879.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-160x138.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/WorkersRallyBabyWithSign-1536x1324.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ayla Arroyo, 1, from Orange County holds a sign in Spanish that reads 'Safety Net for All Coalition,' at a rally at the state Capitol on March 3, 2022. A coalition of more than 100 California organizations is calling for unemployment benefits for undocumented workers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Sumeet Bal, California Immigrant Policy Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maria Venegas, one of the speakers at the Sacramento rally, said she lost her job at a restaurant in San Francisco early in the pandemic and remained unemployed for several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venegas remembers having to explain to her two sons, ages 10 and 15, that they had run out of money to pay rent. The family relied on food banks to survive and was ultimately evicted, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I sacrificed so much to be able to support my children,” said Venegas, an indigenous Maya immigrant from Mexico. “I came to support this bill not just for me but for our community ... so we don’t go through the same crisis again of losing our jobs without having access to any unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11906868","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More than 5.2 million Californians were either undocumented or lived in a household with an undocumented person in 2018, according to census data analyzed by researchers at the University of Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11907155/californias-undocumented-workers-would-get-unemployment-benefits-under-new-bill","authors":["8659"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_1169","news_8"],"tags":["news_18538","news_27698","news_18269","news_20202","news_19904","news_17968","news_244","news_30130"],"featImg":"news_11907199","label":"news_72"},"news_11899871":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11899871","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11899871","score":null,"sort":[1640050222000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"edd-begins-punitive-approach-by-forcing-some-recipients-to-pay-back-their-unemployment-benefits","title":"EDD Begins Punitive Approach by Forcing Some Recipients to Pay Back Their Unemployment Benefits","publishDate":1640050222,"format":"standard","headTitle":"CALmatters | KQED News","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A new state policy may require nearly 900,000 Californians to return their unemployment benefits because they may not have been working or looking for work. But some researchers worry the clawback campaign could force people with lower incomes to pay back thousands of dollars they no longer have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Economic Development Department began issuing notifications of the proof-of-work requirement last month to one-third of California’s 2.9 million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance recipients. The federal program, which ran from March 2020 and ended in September, was aimed at helping people who don’t usually qualify for unemployment benefits because they are freelancers or small-business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is asking them to prove, retroactively, that they were working, or planning to work, prior to filing their unemployment claim. If they can’t provide documentation, they would be ineligible and asked to give the benefits back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11888843\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/EDD-UNEMPLOYMENT-1020x680.jpg\"]A full repayment could be over $32,000 if a recipient received full benefits throughout the program. In addition, if a claimant offered false information, the state could impose a 30% penalty. Some experts are now suggesting giving recipients a pass even if they can’t prove their eligibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be saying, ‘Look, if you got unemployment insurance benefits during that time, you’re fine,’” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the left-leaning California Budget and Policy Center based in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the concern is fraudulent claims,” he added, “then do the work to fix the administration of the system” instead of requiring recipients to prove they qualified for the benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear where lawmakers stand. Democratic Assemblymember Tom Daly of Anaheim, chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, which has oversight of the EDD, did not return a request for comment. Assemblymember Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, an independent serving as vice chair of the committee, also didn’t respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chair and vice chair of the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee — Democrat Dave Cortese of San José and Republican Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh of Yucaipa — also did not respond to requests for comment.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nThe EDD noted that the repayment policy is a federal requirement, passed by Congress in the Continued Assistance for Unemployment Workers Act in 2020. EDD acknowledges it can waive repayment if the overpayment was not the recipient’s fault or not fraudulent and if repayment would cause extraordinary hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policy is an attempt to claw back \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-california-5ec16ebe5b5982a9531a7a3d5a45e93c\">an estimated $20 billion lost to fraudulent claims in California\u003c/a>. But McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney who has been leading a state investigation into unemployment fraud, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article256487486.html\">doesn’t believe EDD’s repayment policy will recover much\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Chris Hoene, California Budget and Policy Center\"]'If the concern is fraudulent claims, then do the work to fix the administration of the system.'[/pullquote]The state’s immense loss came after EDD, inundated with unemployment claims early in the pandemic, began expediting the process by waiving a proof-of-work requirement. Investigators have said the rollback allowed organized crime and incarcerated people to siphon money from the state through fraudulent claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recipients who receive EDD notices must use \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019/pandemic-unemployment-assistance.htm#SelfEmployment\">pay stubs, tax returns, business licenses or job offer letters\u003c/a> to prove they were employed or planned to be employed in the lead-up to filing their claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who filed on or after Jan. 31 have only 21 days to send documentation. Those who filed before that date, and received a payment after Dec. 27, 2020, have 90 days to comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We probably need to implement this with compassion,” said Jesse Rothstein, a professor of public policy and economics at UC Berkeley. “We won’t be able to collect in every case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='economy']Even before the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.unitedwaysca.org/realcost\">nearly 1 in 3 Californian households struggled to pay for basic necessities\u003c/a>, according to the United Ways of California. During the pandemic, a report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity found that 4.8 million Californians were seeking, but unable to find, full-time work that paid a living wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent report by Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty in the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/12/13/covid-didnt-increase-poverty-in-the-bay-area-new-report-says/\">estimated that 200,000 of the region’s residents were kept out of poverty\u003c/a> because of expanded support from government and charitable organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without further bold action, we risk a ‘return to normal’ in terms of durable poverty and inequality,” said Tipping Point’s chief executive, Sam Cobbs. “We cannot afford to take that step backwards.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California is requiring unemployment recipients to retroactively prove their work history, but experts say recipients with lower incomes could be forced to repay money they don't have.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1640113052,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":17,"wordCount":817},"headData":{"title":"EDD Begins Punitive Approach by Forcing Some Recipients to Pay Back Their Unemployment Benefits | KQED","description":"California is requiring unemployment recipients to retroactively prove their work history, but experts say recipients with lower incomes could be forced to repay money they don't have.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"EDD Begins Punitive Approach by Forcing Some Recipients to Pay Back Their Unemployment Benefits","datePublished":"2021-12-21T01:30:22.000Z","dateModified":"2021-12-21T18:57:32.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"disqusIdentifier":"11899871 https://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11899871","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/12/20/edd-begins-punitive-approach-by-forcing-some-recipients-to-pay-back-their-unemployment-benefits/","disqusTitle":"EDD Begins Punitive Approach by Forcing Some Recipients to Pay Back Their Unemployment Benefits","nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jesse-bedayn/\">Jesse Bedayn\u003c/a>","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","path":"/news/11899871/edd-begins-punitive-approach-by-forcing-some-recipients-to-pay-back-their-unemployment-benefits","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new state policy may require nearly 900,000 Californians to return their unemployment benefits because they may not have been working or looking for work. But some researchers worry the clawback campaign could force people with lower incomes to pay back thousands of dollars they no longer have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Economic Development Department began issuing notifications of the proof-of-work requirement last month to one-third of California’s 2.9 million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance recipients. The federal program, which ran from March 2020 and ended in September, was aimed at helping people who don’t usually qualify for unemployment benefits because they are freelancers or small-business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is asking them to prove, retroactively, that they were working, or planning to work, prior to filing their unemployment claim. If they can’t provide documentation, they would be ineligible and asked to give the benefits back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11888843","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/EDD-UNEMPLOYMENT-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A full repayment could be over $32,000 if a recipient received full benefits throughout the program. In addition, if a claimant offered false information, the state could impose a 30% penalty. Some experts are now suggesting giving recipients a pass even if they can’t prove their eligibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should be saying, ‘Look, if you got unemployment insurance benefits during that time, you’re fine,’” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the left-leaning California Budget and Policy Center based in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the concern is fraudulent claims,” he added, “then do the work to fix the administration of the system” instead of requiring recipients to prove they qualified for the benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear where lawmakers stand. Democratic Assemblymember Tom Daly of Anaheim, chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee, which has oversight of the EDD, did not return a request for comment. Assemblymember Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, an independent serving as vice chair of the committee, also didn’t respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The chair and vice chair of the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee — Democrat Dave Cortese of San José and Republican Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh of Yucaipa — also did not respond to requests for comment.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nThe EDD noted that the repayment policy is a federal requirement, passed by Congress in the Continued Assistance for Unemployment Workers Act in 2020. EDD acknowledges it can waive repayment if the overpayment was not the recipient’s fault or not fraudulent and if repayment would cause extraordinary hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policy is an attempt to claw back \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-california-5ec16ebe5b5982a9531a7a3d5a45e93c\">an estimated $20 billion lost to fraudulent claims in California\u003c/a>. But McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney who has been leading a state investigation into unemployment fraud, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article256487486.html\">doesn’t believe EDD’s repayment policy will recover much\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"'If the concern is fraudulent claims, then do the work to fix the administration of the system.'","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","size":"medium","citation":"Chris Hoene, California Budget and Policy Center","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The state’s immense loss came after EDD, inundated with unemployment claims early in the pandemic, began expediting the process by waiving a proof-of-work requirement. Investigators have said the rollback allowed organized crime and incarcerated people to siphon money from the state through fraudulent claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recipients who receive EDD notices must use \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019/pandemic-unemployment-assistance.htm#SelfEmployment\">pay stubs, tax returns, business licenses or job offer letters\u003c/a> to prove they were employed or planned to be employed in the lead-up to filing their claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who filed on or after Jan. 31 have only 21 days to send documentation. Those who filed before that date, and received a payment after Dec. 27, 2020, have 90 days to comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We probably need to implement this with compassion,” said Jesse Rothstein, a professor of public policy and economics at UC Berkeley. “We won’t be able to collect in every case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Coverage ","tag":"economy"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even before the pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.unitedwaysca.org/realcost\">nearly 1 in 3 Californian households struggled to pay for basic necessities\u003c/a>, according to the United Ways of California. During the pandemic, a report from the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity found that 4.8 million Californians were seeking, but unable to find, full-time work that paid a living wage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent report by Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty in the Bay Area, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/12/13/covid-didnt-increase-poverty-in-the-bay-area-new-report-says/\">estimated that 200,000 of the region’s residents were kept out of poverty\u003c/a> because of expanded support from government and charitable organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without further bold action, we risk a ‘return to normal’ in terms of durable poverty and inequality,” said Tipping Point’s chief executive, Sam Cobbs. “We cannot afford to take that step backwards.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11899871/edd-begins-punitive-approach-by-forcing-some-recipients-to-pay-back-their-unemployment-benefits","authors":["byline_news_11899871"],"categories":["news_1758","news_8"],"tags":["news_3651","news_18545","news_28339","news_28340","news_5605","news_30411","news_28879","news_631","news_30130","news_29254","news_27765"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11899878","label":"news_18481"},"news_11893715":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11893715","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11893715","score":null,"sort":[1635211209000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"californias-unemployment-fraud-balloons-to-20-billion","title":"California's Unemployment Fraud Balloons to $20 Billion","publishDate":1635211209,"format":"standard","headTitle":"KQED News","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>California has given away at least $20 billion in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11% of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials blamed nearly all of that fraud on a hastily approved expansion of unemployment benefits by Congress that let people who were self-employed get weekly checks from the government with few safeguards to stop those who were not eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don't think people have captured in their mind the enormity of the amount of money [that] has been issued errantly to undeserving people,” said Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican from Palmdale, who brought along an illustration of 29 dump trucks filled to the brim with $100 bills representing just over half of the money lost to fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic ushered in widespread fraud at unemployment agencies across the country, with at least \u003ca href=\"https://oig.dol.gov/doloiguioversightwork.htm\">$87 billion in fraudulent payments approved by states\u003c/a>, according to a June report from the inspector general's office at the U.S. Department of Labor. \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-arizona-1f9f1361199f19f7cdc4279a546a37b1\">In Arizona alone\u003c/a>, state officials said scammers pocketed nearly 30% of all its unemployment benefit payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the fraud was so widespread that state officials OK'd at least \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-jobless-claims-coronavirus-pandemic-0281a79c0e644fbe283f970ee1227ba6\">$810 million in benefits\u003c/a> in the names of people who were in prison, including dozens on death row; incarcerated people are ineligible for benefits. State officials even sent \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/dianne-feinstein-california-coronavirus-pandemic-cccc9fdafd6e76db72bc533084f1fae3\">$21,000 in benefits\u003c/a> to an address in Roseville under the name and Social Security number of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein — some of the $2 million in total fraudulent payments that were sent to that same address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration on Monday sought to assure state lawmakers that the fraud pipeline in California has been closed. Employment Development Department Director Rita Saenz said the state has implemented new identity verification software that, along with other preventive measures, has stopped an estimated $120 billion in fraud attempts.[aside postID=news_11868681,news_11872086,news_11888075]Saenz told lawmakers on Monday during an oversight hearing that “2020 was an anomaly, a criminal assault on the unemployment insurance program across the country.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We closed the door to that type of fraud last year,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, state officials estimated \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-bdb79d54d86c3758650fa4f7163cebb2\">the fraud could be as high as $31 billion\u003c/a>. But Monday, state officials revised that down to $20 billion. The Newsom administration has hired former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott to help prosecute scammers, with the department saying Monday investigations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the department is still plagued with other problems. When people apply for unemployment benefits, sometimes the information they file with the state is different from what their former employer has filed. When this happens, state officials have to interview these people to resolve those issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article255145237.html\">people are having to wait up to six months for these interviews\u003c/a>. Saenz called this delay “unacceptable.” But she said the state has a new policy that pays people their benefits while they wait, as long as they pass the state's fraud filters. Saenz said about half of the people waiting for interviews are being paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things are not improving fast enough for some. There are still some challenges ahead,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has paid out more than \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/Newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard.htm\">$178 billion in unemployment benefits\u003c/a> since the start of the pandemic based on 25.5 million total claims. Saenz said that's four times as much as the combined worst two years of the Great Recession a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer volume of claims overwhelmed the department, creating a massive backlog and making it nearly impossible to get an answer when people called the agency's call centers. In January, a state audit blasted the department for doing little to stop the fraud for the first four months of the pandemic, blaming the Newsom administration for “significant missteps and inaction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday, the auditor's office said the department had completed \u003ca href=\"https://www.edd.ca.gov/Newsroom/facts-and-stats/audit-progress.htm\">13 of its 21 recommendations\u003c/a> so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“EDD has made notable progress in addressing areas of concern we found during our audits. But significant steps still need to be taken to address areas of risk,” said Bob Harris, who managed the department's audit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saenz told lawmakers the department had not missed any of the auditor's deadlines to make changes. She said the department plans to finish hiring people for its newly formed fraud investigation unit by the end of November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other changes will take longer. The department is working on a new system that will deposit unemployment benefits directly into people's bank accounts instead of sending them a check or debit card in the mail, which is more susceptible to fraud. But Saenz said this will take a few years to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That delay upset some lawmakers, who said they were worried people were losing faith in their government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When one of our government agencies fails this badly, I believe that it breaks the public trust,” said Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat from Laguna Beach.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"State officials blamed nearly all of that fraud on a hastily approved expansion of unemployment benefits by Congress that let people who were self-employed get weekly checks from the government, with few safeguards in place.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1635280349,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":857},"headData":{"title":"California's Unemployment Fraud Balloons to $20 Billion | KQED","description":"State officials blamed nearly all of that fraud on a hastily approved expansion of unemployment benefits by Congress that let people who were self-employed get weekly checks from the government, with few safeguards in place.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"California's Unemployment Fraud Balloons to $20 Billion","datePublished":"2021-10-26T01:20:09.000Z","dateModified":"2021-10-26T20:32:29.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"disqusIdentifier":"11893715 https://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11893715","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2021/10/25/californias-unemployment-fraud-balloons-to-20-billion/","disqusTitle":"California's Unemployment Fraud Balloons to $20 Billion","nprByline":"Adam Beam\u003cbr>Associated Press","path":"/news/11893715/californias-unemployment-fraud-balloons-to-20-billion","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California has given away at least $20 billion in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11% of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials blamed nearly all of that fraud on a hastily approved expansion of unemployment benefits by Congress that let people who were self-employed get weekly checks from the government with few safeguards to stop those who were not eligible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don't think people have captured in their mind the enormity of the amount of money [that] has been issued errantly to undeserving people,” said Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican from Palmdale, who brought along an illustration of 29 dump trucks filled to the brim with $100 bills representing just over half of the money lost to fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic ushered in widespread fraud at unemployment agencies across the country, with at least \u003ca href=\"https://oig.dol.gov/doloiguioversightwork.htm\">$87 billion in fraudulent payments approved by states\u003c/a>, according to a June report from the inspector general's office at the U.S. Department of Labor. \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-arizona-1f9f1361199f19f7cdc4279a546a37b1\">In Arizona alone\u003c/a>, state officials said scammers pocketed nearly 30% of all its unemployment benefit payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the fraud was so widespread that state officials OK'd at least \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-jobless-claims-coronavirus-pandemic-0281a79c0e644fbe283f970ee1227ba6\">$810 million in benefits\u003c/a> in the names of people who were in prison, including dozens on death row; incarcerated people are ineligible for benefits. State officials even sent \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/dianne-feinstein-california-coronavirus-pandemic-cccc9fdafd6e76db72bc533084f1fae3\">$21,000 in benefits\u003c/a> to an address in Roseville under the name and Social Security number of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein — some of the $2 million in total fraudulent payments that were sent to that same address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration on Monday sought to assure state lawmakers that the fraud pipeline in California has been closed. Employment Development Department Director Rita Saenz said the state has implemented new identity verification software that, along with other preventive measures, has stopped an estimated $120 billion in fraud attempts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11868681,news_11872086,news_11888075","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Saenz told lawmakers on Monday during an oversight hearing that “2020 was an anomaly, a criminal assault on the unemployment insurance program across the country.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We closed the door to that type of fraud last year,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, state officials estimated \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-bdb79d54d86c3758650fa4f7163cebb2\">the fraud could be as high as $31 billion\u003c/a>. But Monday, state officials revised that down to $20 billion. The Newsom administration has hired former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott to help prosecute scammers, with the department saying Monday investigations are ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the department is still plagued with other problems. When people apply for unemployment benefits, sometimes the information they file with the state is different from what their former employer has filed. When this happens, state officials have to interview these people to resolve those issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article255145237.html\">people are having to wait up to six months for these interviews\u003c/a>. Saenz called this delay “unacceptable.” But she said the state has a new policy that pays people their benefits while they wait, as long as they pass the state's fraud filters. Saenz said about half of the people waiting for interviews are being paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things are not improving fast enough for some. There are still some challenges ahead,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has paid out more than \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/Newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard.htm\">$178 billion in unemployment benefits\u003c/a> since the start of the pandemic based on 25.5 million total claims. Saenz said that's four times as much as the combined worst two years of the Great Recession a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheer volume of claims overwhelmed the department, creating a massive backlog and making it nearly impossible to get an answer when people called the agency's call centers. In January, a state audit blasted the department for doing little to stop the fraud for the first four months of the pandemic, blaming the Newsom administration for “significant missteps and inaction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday, the auditor's office said the department had completed \u003ca href=\"https://www.edd.ca.gov/Newsroom/facts-and-stats/audit-progress.htm\">13 of its 21 recommendations\u003c/a> so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“EDD has made notable progress in addressing areas of concern we found during our audits. But significant steps still need to be taken to address areas of risk,” said Bob Harris, who managed the department's audit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saenz told lawmakers the department had not missed any of the auditor's deadlines to make changes. She said the department plans to finish hiring people for its newly formed fraud investigation unit by the end of November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But other changes will take longer. The department is working on a new system that will deposit unemployment benefits directly into people's bank accounts instead of sending them a check or debit card in the mail, which is more susceptible to fraud. But Saenz said this will take a few years to implement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That delay upset some lawmakers, who said they were worried people were losing faith in their government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When one of our government agencies fails this badly, I believe that it breaks the public trust,” said Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat from Laguna Beach.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11893715/californias-unemployment-fraud-balloons-to-20-billion","authors":["byline_news_11893715"],"categories":["news_1758","news_8"],"tags":["news_28340","news_25015","news_30131","news_30130"],"featImg":"news_11878784","label":"news"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? 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You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn","officialWebsiteLink":"/mindshift/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"2"},"link":"/podcasts/mindshift","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"}},"morning-edition":{"id":"morning-edition","title":"Morning Edition","info":"\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. 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