More than a half-dozen state Assembly members, including two from the Bay Area, introduced a suite of legislation Thursday intended to reform California’s beleaguered Employment Development Department.
The bills from nine legislators, including Assemblymembers David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, focus on the EDD’s unemployment insurance program, which has struggled to keep up with demand for insurance since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The EDD has also dealt with at least $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, including an estimate of nearly $1 billion in fraudulent claims made by inmates in several California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities.
According to Chiu, EDD officials are investigating another $19 billion in fraudulent claims.
Chiu and Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, proposed investing $55 million as part of the legislative package to create a task force of law enforcement agencies to address the ballooning number of fraud cases.
“In conversations that Assemblymember Petrie-Norris and I have had with DA’s and law enforcement agencies around the state, we’ve heard consistently that they are woefully underfunded and under-supported,” Chiu said Thursday.
“Many offices can barely devote an investigator and a prosecutor on the most egregious cases,” he added.
Chiu compared the task force of state and local agencies to those that target fraudulent auto insurance, disability, health care and worker’s compensation insurance claims.
Chiu also introduced a bill as part of the legislative package that would require the EDD to expand its multi-lingual translation and communication services to ensure that claimants who don’t speak primarily English can still access unemployment benefits.
Chiu noted that last summer’s report from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s EDD strike team found that non-English speakers face “insurmountable barriers” to file unemployment insurance claims and receive benefits.
California has some 7 million residents who speak a language other than English, 2.4 million of whom speak a language other than English or Spanish.
“We all know during this pandemic, people of color and immigrants have been particularly hard hit, they’re much more likely to work in sectors shut down by this pandemic,” Chiu said.
“They need EDD to work, and it’s well documented that EDD isn’t working for English-speaking claimants and it’s next to impossible for those not proficient in English,” he said.
The EDD strike team also found a backlog of some 600,000 unemployment insurance claims last September, which Newsom suggested was the result of aging technological systems used to confirm claimant identities and process applications.
“This system is a 30-plus-year-old technological system,” Newsom said at that time, adding that it needs to be upgraded or “frankly … strewn to the wastebin of history.”
The state ultimately did change the technology it uses to confirm claimant identities, but claimants have still argued that the state is moving slowly to dole out insurance payments and the computer systems EDD uses are some 40 years old.
“The reality is, modernizing the system is complicated and will take a great deal of time,” Chiu said.
“So EDD, up to now, has chosen to effectively defer a conversation on modernization, which may make sense as we’re grappling with the immediate issues of the day at this moment, but very quickly we need to pivot on what a long-term modernization will look like.”
Wicks proposed a bill that would establish an Office of the Claimant Advocate within the EDD to help claimants navigate documented EDD issues like phone lines going unanswered for up to 14 hours, unemployment insurance debit cards being closed without notice and the agency’s aging technology.
Wicks’ bill would also establish a bill of rights for claimants that would enable them to report violations of their right to insurance programs administered by the EDD and utilize the Office of the Claimant Advocate to help enforce that right.
“At the end of the day, government has to work for people,” Wicks said. “And it is so important that right now government is working for people.”
well if it like the poor changes they rushed in to prevent fraud this go round it will make it even harder for ACTUAL Americans to get their unemployment
what a joke!!
Tell me one other state with this issue?
Just add it to the list the state can’t handle.
How about this, instead of creating new laws, make the people who manage this and do the day to day work accountable!
hmmm
a democrat run state for over 40 years
shouldnt it have all ready been a smooth running system since their majority of voters are on it
and dems are running and gave away billions
and not one of them accountable
go figure
here is the new tax hike coming
you voted for this ….oh wait thats right
you probably didnt vote for it but they said you did
in 3 years we will be under seige
But the technology that pays state pensions work very well. We haven’t heard any complaints about that.
Government creates a problem then taxes citizens to fix the problem, which in turn will create another problem.
One of my jobs is working for a bank and I see people on unemployment using the money to shop at the mall and go on vacations. Stop extending it let them learn new skills and get a job for god sakes.
@Schmee – If what you claim is true then report the people involved to EDD.
Lol. Report people for what? EDD is to replace the income you don’t have because of the COVID government shutting life down. Do you really think YOU control how people spend their money? Y2 need to get a life. You do know they sell clothes at the mall right? Clothes are essential. You could have a million dollars in your bank and still collect EDD if you were displaced by the COVID government hoax.
#RecallGavinNewsom
https://recallgavin2020.com/
👍🏻
He had his chance. Should have used a chain saw on the dead forests, put an axe to the incompetent leadership of these corrupt hammock programs, and eaten a simpler diet. Now the recall chickens are coming home to roost.
What a target-rich environment for an upright governor of the people!
And I’m sure some of you haven’t a clue whom I’m referencing.
I think one of the big problems is that they provide disability payments to people using false social security numbers under their current policies, seems like cutting those payments should be step one.
Government is elected politicians = self serving imbeciles = steal from and lie the constituency to get re-elected and the cycle continues on and on…
I thought at one time speaking English was a requirement for becoming a citizen? Looks like we just threw that requirement out the door. Maybe we just need to open satellite offices for EDD in different countries? (really?)
I’ll bet all those inept legislators love the recall Gavin push.
No more laws – hold those responsible for screwing up.
Prison would be a good start, along with forfeiture of any future benefits.
We are underfunded due to rampant fraud. Why not fix that first.
Recall Newsom.
for a friend
#RecallGavinNewsom
https://recallgavin2020.com/
With all the surplus money they use to have, why couldn’t they have updated the 40 year old computer system. Losing 11 billon dollars is unbelievable. There should be some accountability for this.
If you hate the problems our Government causes wait until you see the solutions.