Audit, more funding requested to ease EDD jobless insurance woes
A California lawmaker Monday asked for additional funding and an audit intended to ease problems with the state’s unemployment insurance program, which has been hampered after a botched technology upgrade implemented by the beleaguered Employment Development Department.
Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), chairman of the Insurance Committee, which oversees the unemployment insurance program, is requesting $12 million from the state’s general fund to add an additional 200 workers to answer calls.
Frustrated Californians have inundated the agency with calls after a botched IT upgrade in late August delayed benefit payments to as many as 150,000 residents. The agency is still trying to fix some of those IT problems. A Times story published last week found that as few as 10% of roughly 3.9 million phone calls placed in a week to the EDD are answered.
EDD officials said federal budget cuts have hampered the agency’s ability to staff the phones. Though it’s a state agency, administrative costs for the unemployment insurance program are paid for with federal dollars.
Perea has also requested an audit of the EDD’s appeals process by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee. The lawmaker has been critical of the high rate -- more than 50% -- at which denied unemployment benefits claims are reversed during the appeals process.
“Clearly the system is still broken when claimants have to call EDD on average 40 times to get through, and when over 50% of UI denied claims that are appealed are overturned,” Perea said. “My plan lays out a set of reasonable proposals to improve the UI program, and give claimants better service.”
Loree Levy, an EDD spokeswoman, said the overturn rates are not a reliable indicator and that claimants often bring documents to an appeal that they didn’t previously provide. Levy said the EDD has made improvements in this area in recent years.
A third part of Perea’s proposal seeks to write into law changes he had asked for during a November oversight hearing into delays of jobless checks. Among them, changing a policy that halts payments to claimants who say they are undergoing job training, translating EDD communications in more languages and providing more detailed information to claimants.
Sharon Hilliard, the EDD’s chief deputy director, said the agency is already working on measures to close the federal funding gap. That’s in addition to a new budget proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown that would direct state funds to the agency.
“The EDD is committed to working with our partners to mitigate wherever possible the damaging impacts of federal underfunding at a time when demand for unemployment services outweighs available staffing and resources,” Hilliard said in an emailed statement provided by the EDD.
