California’s neverending EDD scandal

It is difficult to overstate the extent of the disaster that is the California’s Employment Development Department.

“Despite repeated warnings, EDD did not bolster its fraud detection efforts until months into the pandemic, and it suspended a critical safeguard which, combined, resulted in over $10 billion in claims that it has since determined may be fraudulent,” reported the California State Auditor in January.

Meanwhile, millions of Californians who have lost their jobs over the past year and a half have run into problems accessing legitimate assistance to help them make ends meet.

The Bay Area News Group reported last week that the Legislature is authorizing members of the California Assembly to hire staff to help deal with requests for help accessing unemployment benefits. “Since the EDD started to track claims on its newest dashboard, the number has never been below 1 million, which covers a period of well over four months starting on Feb. 13 of 2021,” reported the Bay Area News Group’s George Avalos.

As of June 26, the backlog hit 1.12 million, up from 1.02 million in April.

In another development, it’s no wonder that Bank of America, which has a contract with the state to provide benefits through prepaid cards, wants out, as reported by ABC 7 in San Francisco.

“We have advised the state that we would like to exit this business as soon as possible,” said Bank of America.

The bank “lost ‘hundreds of millions’ of dollars last year as it scrambled to address record jobless claims, rampant fraud and a flood of consumer complaints,” reported CalMatters in January, so it’s understandable why.

The EDD scandal is a lesson in what happens when you have a state government guided by special interest concerns and pure politics rather than a good faith focus on actually serving the public.

State officials have had over a decade since the problems EDD faced during the Great Recession to ensure EDD operated as it should. State officials have been warned for years about the very problems that have manifested terribly over the course of the last year and a half.

It’s time for state officials to focus on the basics, for a change.