SACRAMENTO
Paying to use EDD services
The situation at California’s unemployment department — where the backlog of unresolved claims has grown for six straight weeks — is so dire that jobless residents are paying private companies to help them bypass the Employment Development Department’s jammed phone lines.
Meanwhile, many non-English speakers are paying intermediaries to fill out their unemployment applications and recertify them every two weeks, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The outsourcing of labor highlights fundamental gaps in EDD’s services: Although the department recently took steps to shorten wait times by allowing claimants to request a call back after waiting 15 minutes on hold, many people have trouble reaching the hold line in the first place — prompting them to pay companies to robo-call the department to secure a place in line. (EDD says the robo-calls could actually be contributing to lengthy wait times.) And lawmakers have long criticized EDD for not making information available in multiple languages, a problem both pending legislation and Newsom’s budget proposal aim to address.
Meanwhile, a federal judge on Tuesday ordered Bank of America, which pays California unemployment benefits via debit card, to stop using an automated fraud filter that blocked tens of thousands of jobless residents from accessing their claims after they reported suspicious activity on their accounts. The judge also required the bank to reopen all claims it had previously denied, restore account access upon proof of identity and resolve claims of theft within 45 days.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco: “Continued denial of these benefits will seriously hinder the ability of many (claimants) to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.”
—Hoeven, CALMatters
CALIFORNIA
Post-pandemic era approaches
Another eight counties flew into less restrictive reopening tiers on Tuesday, with Sacramento and San Joaquin among those moving into the second-least restrictive orange reopening tier and Marin, Monterey and Ventura among those moving into the least restrictive yellow tier. That gives them a few weeks to open businesses to more customers before the state does away with capacity limits altogether on June 15. But even as California prepares to return to something approximating normalcy, some residents are planning to carry pandemic action items into the post-COVID era. OpenSchoolsCA, a parent group that formed to advocate for a return to full in-person instruction, will this morning launch a nonprofit organization to develop policy recommendations and support parents running for elected office. Other parent advocacy groups have also suggested they plan to keep organizing post-pandemic, setting the stage for a potential ongoing conflict with teachers unions — and a new force in California politics.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
—Compiled by Ariel Carmona Jr.
