Carie Mathis’ cleaning industry collapsed when the pandemic began. The single mother became unemployed to support herself and her 15-year-old twins, but could not pay the rent for their Rodeo home. They moved in with her parents in Vacaville. She stacks in the garage so the kids can have bedrooms.
In December, her unemployment benefits were suddenly suspended. “Every income that … comes in was dry,” she said. She spent hours fruitlessly calling the California Department of Employment. On New Year’s Eve, she finally received an email in which she explained that she was one of the 1.4 million accounts that the state froze due to alleged fraud.
The consequences of the massive suspension of EDD continue to haunt unemployed people who are desperate to recover their benefits. The agency has sent emails and letters telling the plaintiffs how to prove their identity, but it does so in groups to prevent the systems from being overwhelmed. EDD has told lawmakers it could take until mid-February to verify the suspended bills.
Even those who are notified are struggling. Mathis spent hours online submitting identity documents, calling EDD and then resubmitting.
She does not like to ask her parents for groceries and is worried about losing ‘everything under the sun that is close to my heart if she can not pay for her storage space. She set up a GoFundMe for help.
“I go to bed at night and turn my head like, ‘When is this ever going to stop? ‘, She said.
“I could not find more words to describe my frustration with this situation,” said David Chiu, a member of the State Assembly, D-San Francisco. He said he is working with other legislators on bills to reform EDD and investigate its issues with scammers. “I suspect the degree of fraud made them feel like they had to hit the emergency for everyone,” he said. He still blamed the agency for not being ‘more judgmental’ about those seeking benefits.
“It’s unscrupulous that EDD cannot make a distinction between legal claimants who have a history of work and those who are making things up,” said Jim Patterson, R-Fresno. “The desperation is just heartbreaking.”
As the frustration escalates, the CEO of the outside company who verifies the plaintiffs’ identities says his company is working as fast as possible to help authentic unemployed people and to eliminate armies of fraudsters who want to sift billions of dollars out of California.
“You have the Russians, Chinese, Nigerians, Ghanaians and even domestic criminals attacking this agency on a large scale,” said Blake Hall, CEO of ID.me. “And those nation-state actors and organized crime are calling … to keep it out while also helping legal people is really difficult, and currently organized crime is all over the state.”
EDD hired ID.me in October after a task force convened by Governor Gavin Newsom blamed the agency for the slow handling of claims. The McLean, Va., Company, does ID verification for 14 countries’ unemployment systems, as well as other government agencies. ID.me said it verifies nearly 2 million people nationwide per month.
ID.me said that from Oct. 1 to Jan. 12, it verified 847,289 plaintiffs from California and blocked 488,308 fraudulent claims in the state.
Hall said the automated, self-service process can handle about 88% of people, while the rest has to go through a video chat verification. People who do not have computers to perform the online verification are referred back to EDD, he said.
Social media is flooded with stories of people waiting five hours or longer for ID.me’s video chats, though Hall said the usual waiting time is 30 to two hours. He said the company employs about 40 new staff members every week.
“Unfortunately, this supply of fraud and plaintiffs contributes to longer waiting times for legal plaintiffs,” he said. “Users who are having problems have been waiting for benefits for weeks and months and they take the frustration out of us, which is understandable.”
Others say they completed their ID.me authentication without their benefits being restored.
“I followed everything I had to do, and I still have no benefits (although) it says’ Congratulations, you have been verified ”, two days before, Mathis said on Thursday.
Hall said the reinstatement of accounts is a question for EDD.
The agency did not respond to questions. It sent a statement saying: “As plaintiffs verify their identity, EDD removes barriers to claims so that payments to qualifying claimants can proceed – something that can take place within days.” Claims must continue to certify their benefits while their accounts are suspended to reduce delays in the future.
Shelly Ross’ pet grooming company, Tales of the Kitty, has seen things explode. She fired herself and most of her 14 employees and set up a GoFundMe account to help her workers.
She also sees that her benefits were suspended in December and she spent hours calling EDD. On Friday, she finally received a message asking her to verify her identity with ID.me, which she did – but her account remained frozen.
“I’m not sure if I can pay my rent in February,” she said.
On Friday, Bank of America, which issued the debit cards issued for EDD benefits, was sued for allegedly failing to protect sufficient unemployment benefits against fraudsters.
“Bank of America was unable to secure the accounts of EDD debit cardholders and did not deal with fraud claims when they were made,” Brian Danitz, a partner at law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, said in a statement. . “Hundreds of millions of unemployment benefits in California have been lost due to fraud.”
Bank of America pointed to EDD’s remarks that it did not ask the bank to include chip technology in the debit cards.
“Bank of America works with the state every day to prevent criminals from getting money and to ensure that legitimate recipients receive their benefits,” a statement said. Although most fraudulent scams take place through fraudulent applications, it has been said that “when fraudulent transactions on front cards take place, we check the claims and return money to legal recipients.”
Mathis summed up the despair experienced by many cut-off people.
“Even though there was a pandemic and the children are homeschooled and the world is in the state, it still is, I still had hope,” she said. “I saved money. We had a house I could get. Now I’m in a limbo and I do not know what to do. ‘
Carolyn Said is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid