Congress cut it with unemployment benefits when it passed the U.S. bailout plan, which extended the benefits just days before the March 14 expiration date. President Biden on Thursday signed the $ 1.9 billion stimulus package to ensure that the benefits, which now include a supplement of $ 300 a week, will be extended to Labor Day.
Although the Department of Employment Development had to overhaul its systems with all the intricacies in the new regulations, it said late Friday that people who receive benefits for less than a year should automatically get the extension.
But at the same time, EDD has two other big projects to tackle. It has to deal with the large number of people who have been unemployed for 12 months now, who have to submit a new claim. It must also collect and verify documents of self-employed persons receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, under new federal rules to eradicate fraud.
This could create a bottleneck at the state agency, which has been struggling all year with the rise of pandemic unemployment claims.
Many people are approaching the twelve-month mark, as the huge demand for unemployment benefits started this week a year ago and is still peaking in April and May. After re-applying, EDD must consider their situation and status to decide whether they should be covered by ordinary state unemployment or new federal benefits.
EDD initially gave an ambiguous answer on how it would handle the situation before later saying it could increase the benefits of the U.S. rescue plan for many plaintiffs.
“We must always make new changes to federal benefits in our system, including introduction and settlement dates,” EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy said in an email Thursday. “So now that we realize what is being approved at the federal level, we can seek the guidance of the U.S. Department of Labor and assess a little bit what is needed to implement the new provisions.”
Some lawmakers, frustrated with the agency’s slow pace, were more forthright in their assessments.
“Given how rocky the implementation of the previous expansion in December was, I’m concerned,” said David Chiu, D-San Francisco, member of the House, whose office is besieged by voters who need help with their benefits. “It is my sincere hope that EDD has learned from previous experience and has a plan to achieve people’s benefits without delay or effort.”
To say the least, EDD does not have a good record of implementing new features or handling large demand.
Late last year, when the benefits expired just one day before being reinstated by the federal government on December 27, EDD said an issue of programming was preventing it from reintroducing it to people whose benefits ended before December 26. has. the affected people, who numbered about 185,000, were able to start certifying for extended benefits, which would leave them with almost three months without payments.
As executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights in Sacramento, Daniela Urban helps numerous plaintiffs who are struggling to get paid. “I am hopeful that EDD has anticipated this expansion and has a plan to implement it with minimal disruptions or gaps,” she said in an email.
The fact that millions of people are celebrating their one-year anniversary of unemployment is still troubling. “The backlog of claims is likely to increase, especially for those plaintiffs who are struggling to fill out ID.me,” she said, referring to the external merchant who handles identity verification.
Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who studies unemployment, said he was concerned that there could be an ambush in California and other states.
“I am humbled by how challenging this conversion is,” he said. “The taxes on these systems are high and they need to be careful about making changes.”
Some debt lies at the federal level.
“Congress did not give the state institutions enough time,” Stettner said. “They are very proud of themselves that the president signed the bill two days before the benefits expired. It’s not a lot of time. ”
Meanwhile, people who are already being bullied by the fluctuations to get benefits are anxious about what the latest changes could mean.
San Franciscan Matt Ruffin, 40, is already struggling to find three jobs – as an assistant home manager at the Orpheum Theater, as a host at Equinox Sports Club and as a person at Sharon Art Studio. When the pandemic started, he was fired from all three.
He was able to get unemployment benefits until mid-December when it suddenly stopped. He could have been among the 1.4 million accounts that froze EDD due to alleged fraud, or among the 185,000 that could only be reconfirmed in March.
“There was no explanation from EDD why I was not paid,” he said. “If they got confused or made a mistake, they did not tell me.”
He spent hours calling EDD and saying several times that everything looked good but still not being paid. State lawmakers also tried to help, paying him one week’s benefits while the rest were still dwindling.
Meanwhile, he juggles accounts and borrows money from friends and family. “His $ 1,400 stimulus check will pay rent immediately, but I do not have to borrow money this month,” he said.
“With the stimulus package, I’m worried it could cause EDD problems, especially for people like my roommates or my brother or former colleagues who avoided the first series of problems,” Ruffin said. “I’m hopeful that it’s not the outcome if it is signed before it expires, but I’ve lost all confidence in EDD.”
Carolyn Said is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid