Californians whose unemployment benefits expired late last year before a federal cut will now have to wait until March before they can even apply to extend it, state officials told lawmakers Friday.
Although the federal government extended the benefits on Dec. 27, just one day after it expired, the California Department of Employment said an issue of programming prevents it from being reinstated immediately for people whose benefits expire before Dec. 26. . next week emails, text messages and emails to notify people affected that they need to certify for benefits from 7 March.
“I’m just shocked,” said State Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park. ‘Many people will just get a letter out of the blue:’ We can only process you on 7 March. ‘Californians rely on food and shelter benefits, and now this group will have to wait (at least) two and a half months. ”
The revelation is the latest in a series of flawed errors at EDD, which has struggled to pay claims to an unprecedented surge of people made unemployed during the pandemic, leaving at least $ 11 billion and possibly up to $ 30 billion to fraudsters lost. On Thursday, state lawmakers proposed a series of bills to reform the troubled agency.
December was also when EDD froze 1.4 million bills to protect against fraud, an action that eliminated many legitimate plaintiffs. It has informed people with frozen accounts over time that they need to go online to verify their identity. Many people whose benefits were discontinued in December may have thought they were part of the freeze on fraud, rather than the newly revealed issue with federal money expiring.
“The roadblock of getting money for large numbers of people in dire need is the same old problem – dinosaur technology,” said Jim Patterson, R-Fresno.
People affected by the latest revelations have found unemployment under two programs created under federal care law. Many have received a benefit created under the law called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which covers the self-employed who are not normally eligible for unemployment insurance. Others received unemployment benefits in emergencies, providing up to 13 weeks of additional federal benefits to laid-off employees who used up their usual unemployment benefits. State unemployment benefits end after 36 weeks in California.
EDD set out the issues in a Friday call with lawmakers, as well as in an email to lawmakers reviewed by The Chronicle. It sent out a news release late Friday in which it discussed expanding the benefits in December, not acknowledging the long delay.
“We are all so exhausted by the deluge of bad news from EDD, and the news of Friday night adds an insult to injury,” said David Chiu, D-San Francisco. “I’m not sure how EDD can think that people can go without income for months.”
Those who will experience the gap are people who ran out of PUA or PEUC before Dec. 26, EDD said in the email.
“EDD has been working on the programming needed to introduce essentially new claims that include the up to 11 additional weeks benefits to be paid for weeks starting December 27,” the letter reads.
It is not clear how many Californians are affected. Between 750,000 and 1.6 million state residents received PUA and PEUC in December, according to two outside analyzes. The California Policy Lab puts the number at 750,000, while the Century Foundation estimates it at 1.6 million. However, not all of these people will have to wait until March, only those whose benefits expired before December 26th.
EDD’s Friday email to lawmakers said it had completed the “first phase” of adding new benefits for those who still had time on their claims on Dec. 26. This implies that the people may have been without benefit until 26 December.
Becker said his office works with a separate group of people who had funds in their account on Dec. 26, but their accounts were closed because the original Cares Act had collapsed. These people had to automatically reopen and renew their accounts, but many did not.
“We helped them reopen their claims and get their benefits paid out,” he said.
On December 24, EDD issued a news release in which it said it was preparing for the expansion of the two Cares Act unemployment programs. The agency “can not implement the new programs until it receives guidelines from the US Department of Labor … which describes how the states should follow the law,” he wrote. “However, EDD is making program adjustments with the information available so that EDD can complete the necessary programming to make federal guidelines and details available to make these new benefits available as soon as possible.”
Congress expanded the benefits by adding 11 weeks to PUA, allowing people to receive it up to 57 weeks. It also extended PEUC by 11 weeks, giving it up to 24 weeks in total.
The agency gave an update on the 1.4 million claims it suspended in December due to fraud. It is said that 367 749 claimants successfully verified their identity and that almost all of them had payments processed, after the agency took another 7 to 10 days to look at other eligible requirements. About 200,000 were told they were disqualified and were shown to appeal or to fill out a new questionnaire, while 100,000 others were sent by mail for identity verification because they did not have online accounts.
The agency will re-email those involved and send an SMS to tell them they need to verify their identity. Those who do not respond will be disqualified and notified of appeal rights.
Carolyn Said is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid