Agency says time is needed to fix system
California’s 1.4 million unemployment fraud cases could require one month to resolve, a lawmaker says, at the same time the state labor agency has required some workers to restart their claims from scratch after their accounts were flagged.
The new disclosures at the state Employment Development Department, coupled with torrents of layoffs linked to the coronavirus, underscore the challenges facing California workers this winter.
EDD officials, in a discussion with state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, have sketched out a timeline for resolving the status of the 1.4 million jobless claims the EDD says could be connected to fraudulent activity.
“It could take up to a month after people verify their I.D.,” Gonzalez said of the wait for some workers. “Hopefully it can get done within 30 days.”
For some workers, a new kind of problem has suddenly emerged.
Anthony Sanfilippo, a San Jose resident, said he was notified Dec. 31 by the EDD that his account was connected to possible fraud. That message from the EDD was just the start of his problems, though.
Sanfilippo became alarmed when the EDD said he was obliged to successfully verify his identity and clear the fraud concerns within 10 days — or he would have to submit a new unemployment claim, starting from the beginning.
The EDD, Sanfilippo said, urged him almost every day to be patient. The agency assured him that he would soon receive all the instructions needed to verify his identity. By Jan. 6, by Jan. 8, by Jan. 14, the instructions would arrive, the EDD told Sanfilippo.
Those instructions never arrived, he said. Then, late Sunday night on Jan. 10 — the last of the 10 days to verify his identity — Sanfilippo was told at the EDD site that he had to file a new claim, he said.
Sanfilippo, who was working in the logistics business when he was laid off, now gets nothing in state benefits. Previously, his payments were $450 a week, the highest amount allowed under California rules.
This predicament galls Sanfilippo, who notes that he and countless other California workers aren’t being paid, even though the EDD issued fraudulent payments to state prisoners such as convicted killer Scott Peterson. Investigators are discovering a widening number of fraud problems linked to EDD unemployment benefits.
The state agency also is wrestling with a mammoth backlog of unpaid jobless claims. A broken call center and glitch-hobbled webpage have snarled the EDD’s efforts to pay legitimate claims filed by jobless workers.
“This is a multi-level problem for California workers,” said Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents parts of San Diego County. “It’s got to be frustrating for them.”
Probes of the EDD’s woes could occur this year if the state Legislature holds oversight hearings regarding the state agency’s actions.
As the chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Gonzalez could play a key role.
“The EDD will have to answer a lot of questions come budget time,” Gonzalez said. “I’m just frustrated. I really want to encourage the EDD to start being very transparent with people.”
The reality, however, is quite different for workers such as Sanfilippo.
“The EDD has taken it from bad to worse,” Sanfilippo said. “Now it’s a dumpster fire.”