State residents seeking unemployment insurance will now be able to do so in multiple languages following the passage of $21 million in funding to reform and expand language services, a state legislator announced Thursday.
The funding, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last month, will enable the state’s Economic Development Department to translate its online forms into the top seven most commonly spoken languages in California.
The EDD will also be required to translate its vital documents into the 15 most commonly spoken languages in the state.
According to Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, roughly 7 million state residents speak a language other than English, 2.4 million of whom speak a language other than English or Spanish.
“During this pandemic, (unemployment) benefits are critical,” Chiu said in a statement. “They are the difference between putting food on the table or going hungry. Every Californian should be able to access them.”
Chiu announced the funding proposal in February with more than a half-dozen other state legislators as part of a suite of bills intended to reform the EDD, which has struggled to keep up with the demand for unemployment insurance since the pandemic began and dealt with billions of dollars in fraudulent claims.
The funding package also requires the EDD to provide interpreters for non-English speakers in real time and extend deadlines for applicants if there are delays in providing translation services.
The EDD is expected to fill an opening for a multilingual access coordinator and produce a report on its language access services by July 1, 2022, according to Chiu’s office.
“For California’s 7 million non-English speaking residents, EDD continues to provide a critical economic lifeline amid the coronavirus pandemic,” Chinese for Affirmative Action economic justice manager Sally Chen said in a statement. “This historic investment will ensure fairer and more equitable access to life-sustaining benefits for the people who need it most.”
Just a question. Do other countries translate their documents in 15 different languages? Why are we?
huh? maybe save most of this money and teach them English?
The last time I checked, the official language of the Divided States of America is English. Learn the language if you want to live here. Unfortunately, CA loves to pander to lazy people…
Agreed! I don’t think language is a barrier to filling out EDD papers as immigrants are very resourceful at figuring things out, especially when money is involved…
Teach the 2.4 million English and STOP wasting California Taxpayers Money!!!
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Expand?
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How about improving EDD’s effectivness before introducing more complexity?
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English is the official language of California, so why is the taxpayer paying for this? In 1986 Prop 63 made English the official language in California. This means the state must ensure that English is the common language of California, and that it is preserved and enhanced. They cannot make a law that will diminish or ignore the role of English as the common language.
It’s important that people in Ukraine, North Korea and Nigeria be able to apply for benefits in their native language!
So the EDD can be subject to fraud in 15 more languages.
Note that they haven’t yet resolved the millions in fraud identified so far.
Recall Newscum!!!
It’s true. This scandal at the EDD happened under Newsom! Just one of 10 reasons that he must be recalled for his poor performance!
How about directing some money to see where the 10 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits went.
What about the 30 billion in fraudulent payments to felons?
The entire EDD claim system frozen for months while people were losing their jobs because of the lockdown
Newsom hasn’t even acknowledged the problem
I believe Newsom is a criminal and should be arrested when recalled
His 8 million mansion was given to him “as a gift” and he failed to report for tax purposes
A mass inquiry into state government malfeasance is long overdue
How many bribes and kickbacks and self dealing scams are there?
Aren’t we fortunate, since we’re in debt up to our eyeballs, to have our good friends the Communist Chinese ready to loan us the money to fund all these ultra liberal endeavors.
REMEMBER ON ELECTION DAY.
At first I was miffed they aren’t spending any time, money, or effort on stopping EDD fraud. Then I remembered lies and fraud are the cornerstone of Newsom’s steamrolling of California.
All this does is reinforce the belief that the US is an economic zone and not a nation and a people.
Amazing that you can be in America not know how to speak English and can still collect benefits somehow. Clown world
Remind me again why we pay taxes?
“For California’s 7 million non-English speaking residents, EDD continues to provide a critical economic lifeline amid the coronavirus pandemic,” ummm learn English because lots of employers require it so you can interact with customers if needed otherwise find a job you can get by with not speaking English….either way, there are lots of places looking for help, from big box stores to small privately owned ones. People are still just looking for the easy money and not wanting to work. My coworkers boyfriend got laid off during covid and he was making good money working behind a desk, insurance firm or something, anywho, he searched for a similar job but after 2 weeks of nothing, guess what? He applied to luckys and got the job. It’s called necessity.
@ Blackoutz ~ You don’t need to yell.
English 78.1%, Spanish 13.5%, other Indo-European languages 3.7%, Asian and Pacific languages 3.6%, other languages 1.2% (2018 survey by the Census Bureau)
Do the math… who needs to deal with it?
I guess Mr. Blackoutz went bye-bye perhaps for the yelling. He unknowingly defeated his own points by talking about the pre-Columbian tribes, who in contrast to his beliefs were frequently at war with each other. They did not share common cultures or languages, and for many the young male’s rite of passage was to make war with other tribes. I am not in favor of America reliving that experience.