Californians whose unemployment benefits expired last year before a federal court must now wait until March before they can apply for an extension, state officials told lawmakers on Friday.
Although the federal government extended benefits on December 27, just a day after they expired, the California Department of Employment Development said a programming problem prevented it from immediately reinstating them to people whose benefits had expired before 26 from December. emails, text messages and correspondence next week to notify affected people that they need to be sure of benefits starting March 7.
“I’m just shocked,” said state senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park. “Many people will receive a letter out of nowhere saying, ‘We can’t sue you until March 7’. Californians have benefits for food and shelter, and now this group will have to wait (at least) two and a half months. “
The revelation is the latest in a series of mistakes at EDD, which has struggled to pay damages to an unprecedented increase in unemployed people during the pandemic, while losing at least $ 11 billion and possibly up to $ 30 billion to fraudsters . On Thursday, state lawmakers proposed a series of bills to reform the troubled agency.
December was also when EDD froze 1.4 million accounts to protect against fraud, an action that swept many legitimate claimants. Over time, she has notified those with frozen accounts in batches that they need to go online to verify their identities. Many people whose benefits were stopped in December may have thought they were part of the fraud freeze, rather than the recently revealed problem with prescribed federal money.
“The obstacle to getting money for large numbers of people who are in desperate need is the same old problem – dinosaur technology,” said Assembly Member Jim Patterson, R-Fresno.
People affected by the latest revelations were becoming unemployed through two programs created by the Federal Cares Act. Many were receiving a benefit created under the law called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which covered self-employed workers normally not eligible for unemployment insurance. Others were receiving Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides up to 13 weeks of additional federal benefits for dismissed employees who used their state’s regular unemployment benefits. State unemployment benefits end after 36 weeks in California.
EDD detailed the problems in a Friday call with lawmakers, as well as in an email to lawmakers reviewed by The Chronicle. He sent a press release on Friday discussing the extent of December benefits, which did not recognize the long delay.
“We are all very exhausted by the deluge of bad news from EDD, and the news this Friday night adds insult to injury,” said Assembly member David Chiu, D-San Francisco. “I’m not sure how EDD can imagine that people can just go without income for months on end.”
Those who will experience the gap are people who were left without PUA or PEUC before December 26, EDD said by email.
“EDD has been working on the schedule necessary to establish essentially new claims incorporating up to 11 additional weeks of benefits payable per week starting December 27,” said the letter.
It is unclear how many Californians are affected. Between 750,000 and 1.6 million residents of the state were receiving PUA and PEUC in December, according to two external analyzes. The California Policy Lab estimated the number at 750,000, while the Century Foundation estimated it at 1.6 million. However, not all of these people will have to wait until March, only those whose benefits have expired before December 26.
EDD’s email to lawmakers on Friday said it had completed “phase one” of adding new benefits to those who still had time to make their claims on December 26. This implied that these people may have been without benefits from December 26 until very recently.
Becker said his office is working with a separate group of people who had funds in their accounts on December 26, but had their accounts closed because the original Cares Act had expired. These people should have their accounts automatically reopened and extended, but not many.
“We have helped to reopen their claims and receive their benefits,” he said.
On December 24, EDD released a press release saying it was preparing to extend the two Cares Act unemployment programs. The agency “cannot implement the new programs until it receives guidelines from the US Department of Labor … describing how states will be required to follow the law, ”she wrote. “However, EDD is making adjustments to the program with the information available so that, when federal guidelines and details are available, EDD can complete the necessary programming to make these new benefits available as quickly as possible.”
Congress extended the benefits by adding 11 weeks to the PUA, allowing people to receive it for up to 57 weeks. It also extended PEUC by 11 weeks, reaching 24 weeks in total.
The agency updated 1.4 million complaints suspended in December due to concerns about fraud. He said 367,749 applicants had successfully verified their identities and almost all had their payments processed, after the agency took another 7 to 10 days to verify other eligibility requirements. About 200,000 were informed that they were disqualified and directed to appeal or complete a new questionnaire, while 100,000 others received paper orders for identity verification because they had no online accounts.
The agency will send an email and text message to those affected again to say that they need to verify their identities. Those who do not respond will be disqualified and notified of the rights to appeal, he said.
Carolyn Said is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid