How much will the EDD scandal cost Newsom?
Had Ivy Bland been able to access more than $9,000 of locked unemployment benefits, she and her husband might have been able to put off their move to Florida.
Had Lindsay Green’s benefits not been frozen because of suspected fraud, she might have kept her medical, dental and car insurance — and not been forced to go on food stamps.
Had Susan Baker’s unemployment payments not suddenly stopped, she might have avoided dipping into her savings to make house payments.
On the other hand, had the state Employment Development Department’s system worked perfectly, Ginny Silver might still have only 37 subscribers to her YouTube channel.
Instead, she has more than 72,000.
The 36-year-old Elk Grove mother of two posts daily videos demystifying the inner workings of the EDD by discussing work search requirements, pending payments and tricks for reaching the notoriously backlogged call centers. More than 1 million people watch her videos a month, enough for Silver — who went on unemployment at the beginning of the pandemic when her wedding photography business shut down — to not only get off unemployment herself but also hire an assistant.
She currently makes more money from her EDD videos than she does from her photography business, which resumed once California began to reopen.
People “shouldn’t have to go to a random person on the internet compiling these government documents,” Silver said. “But because the EDD’s communication, website and customer service departments are so inaccessible and confusing, unfortunately, they do come to my channel for that.
“So while I am happy I have a channel, it should not have a need to exist.”
California’s unemployment department has consistently been one of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s biggest political liabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of jobless residents’ claims have been backlogged for weeks at a time even as the EDD paid out an estimated $31 billion in fraudulent claims, including $1 billion to prison and jail inmates. With account freezes, jammed phone lines and pervasive tech glitches blocking unemployed Californians from the funds they needed to stay afloat, many called their lawmakers for help, desperate and even on the brink of suicide.
After forming a strike team in July 2020 to overhaul the EDD’s outdated technology, Newsom largely avoided commenting directly on the beleaguered department. But his administration has begun to do so, suggesting he’s aware the EDD’s shortcomings could be top of mind for a potentially sizable number of voters in the Sept. 14 recall election.
On April 26, the same day Secretary of State Shirley Weber said enough signatures had been gathered to force a recall election, Newsom’s unemployment fraud task force announced it had arrested 68 people and opened 1,641 more cases.
On July 20, the day before Weber certified the final list of recall candidates, the Newsom administration said it had hired a former federal prosecutor to help crack down on unemployment fraud. On July 22, EDD announced it would start automatically paying benefits to certain jobless Californians to help reduce the mountain of unresolved claims.
Recall candidates have pinpointed the EDD as one of Newsom’s weak spots while proposing reforms that rely largely on recommendations from the state auditor, such as fixing longstanding operational and tech issues and instituting stronger safeguards against fraud.
Meanwhile, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer launched a website to collect Californians’ EDD horror stories and slammed Newsom on Twitter for continuing “to do nothing” about the growing claims backlog. Reality actress Caitlyn Jenner vowed that as governor, she would “work to the bottom of this corruption” at the agency..
The Newsom campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Lindsay Green, 39, voted for the governor in 2018. But now the Santa Monica Democrat said she will “one thousand percent” vote to recall Newsom. Before the pandemic, Green was flying high. After years of working in retail, she finally had landed her dream job as a travel agent. She had medical and dental insurance and a “great income.”
But all of that began to change in April 2020, when she was furloughed and forced to apply for unemployment benefits. In December, she said, her account suddenly was suspended for identity verification. Unable to get her benefits, Green said, “I had no choice but to go on food stamps because I had nothing.”
She also lost her car insurance, which effectively prevented her from driving: “I’m not going to put myself in a position to, you know, get in a car accident and be in a worse position.” Though she has regained dental coverage, she still hasn’t been able to obtain health insurance — and was penalized for it on her taxes.
“You just can’t win, you know?” Green said. “I’ve never in my entire life felt so helpless.”