California to Pause New Unemployment Claims for Two Weeks

By Dana Cruz Sep 20 2020, 23:14 PM EDT

Hard Hit Imperial County Struggles With Surge In COVID-19 Cases In California — People stand in a bookkeeping shop with sheets of plastic protecting workers near the U.S.-Mexico border in Imperial County, which has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, on July 24, 2020 in Calexico, California. by Mario Tama/Getty Images

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) said it would not accept new unemployment claims for the next two weeks.

California is currently working on preventing fraud and reducing backlogs in existing unemployment claims as more than two million people are out of work statewide. Officials said late Saturday that they would use the next two weeks to focus on these issues.

Nearly 600,000 people in California are part of the backlog. Their unemployment claims have not been processed by the EDD for more than 21 days, the state said in a news release.

According to Associated Press, there are also one million cases where people are still waiting a resolution to their modified claims.

Throughout the pandemic, the EDD has been hampered as they struggle to work with outdated technology. The unexpected wave of unemployment claims in California also added to the pressure.

ABC 10 said in a report the EDD will be updating its systems to process claims faster.

The EDD Strike Team also said in their report on Saturday that the department will update its systems. It seeks to have more modern systems that can improve response times.

EDD Director Sharon Hilliard said she agrees with the recommendations of the strike team. She added that the department has already implemented some of them.

"The strike teams' recommendations provide an opportunity to pivot and improve our systems," Hilliard said.

The reset started on September 19 and will go on until October 4.

Changes with EDD Reset

The department clarified that the only people who will be affected by reset are those applying for claims for the first time.

Californians who already have existing claims will still be able to use their accounts. They will also have no interruptions in their payments during the two-week period.

Hilliard added that the EDD improvement will expand document upload feature for mobile users.

This will allow people to give wage information and file military and federal employee claims online. It will also implement new measures to track claims processing work daily.

Anyone who files new claims until October 5 will be asked to give contact information so the EDD can reach out after two weeks.

So far, the state has 1.6 million pending unemployment claims. These claims still need eligibility verification, said the Sacramento Bee.

The department estimated about 2.1 million residents were out of work statewide last month. But this is still an improvement as the unemployment rate in the state fell to 11.4 percent in August, from 13.5 percent in July.

To potentially reduce suspected fraud, the state plans to implement a new online identity verification tool during the two-week period. This will also reduce the number of claims needed to be processed by hand.

"New claimants should not see a delay in benefit payments," Hilliard wrote in a letter to state Governor Gavin Newsom. "[In] fact many of them will actually get their payments faster as they avoid the older time-intensive ID Verification process."

The EDD Strike team was appointed by Newsom in July. He wanted the team to address the current unemployment issues from the pandemic. He also wanted the team to consider long-term solutions to get the department ready for future economic shutdowns.