EDD unemployment backlog: 1.56 million waiting for benefits

California officials — partway through a deliberate pause in processing an avalanche of unemployment claims filed during pandemic-related shutdowns — has a backlog of roughly 1.6 million claims.

The state Employment Development Department released information last Thursday that points to a backlog of 1.02 million people, as of Sept. 30, who have received a single payment but have been waiting more than 21 days to receive a second payment or be disqualified from receiving any more benefits.

Another EDD information dashboard shows a backlog of 542,000 people as of Sept. 30 who have filed a claim but have waited more than 21 days to either receive the first payment or be notified they don’t qualify for any jobless benefits.

Together, the backlog of adds up to 1.56 million California claimants.

State officials point out that at least one payment has been made to roughly 65% of California workers who are mired in the EDD logjam.

“It is very hard to dig out from a backlog when you have a huge amount of claims that are going in,” said Loree Levy, a spokesperson for the EDD.

The department’s twoweek pause has stymied efforts to track the number of weekly jobless filings in California.

The pause arose after a strike team assembled by Gov. Gavin Newsom released a series of recommendations to help the EDD speed up payments for new unemployment claims, reduce fraud, and tackle backlog issues.

Roughly 8.8 million Californians have filed for benefits since the virus-induced business closures.

Starting Monday, the state agency intends to launch a new high-tech tool to verify a worker’s identity, which is expected to help combat fraud as well as reduce the volume of manual tasks that are needed to process a claim and provide benefits.

“This should be very helpful in cutting down the manual workload,” Levy said.