Many of the growing number of people having to file for unemployment due to COVID and the stay-at-home order are suffering. Various private Facebook support groups are dedicated to thousands of CA residents trying to seek unemployment and are unable to receive those funds. Whether they’re wrongfully denied, disqualified without notice or reason, or payments state “pending” for weeks and sometimes months, with no end in site. 

We need these discrepancies and delays to be addressed and the people need some sort of guidance and reassurance that we will eventually be heard and reimbursed for the weeks wrongfully withheld. 

I recently viewed a Facebook video conference with members of the EDD team and a California senator stating that many of the discrepancies/ errors can only be rectified by speaking to someone at EDD. Thousands have tried to reach the overwhelmed system for months and haven’t been able to speak to a single human once. The contact page on the website has also been of no use to many, not receiving a response to their written inquiry for over three plus weeks. 

Whether it’s implementing alternative technologies haven’t been utilized yet (ex: when airlines experience high call volume, you are able to request a call back. Or, at the DMV, you are able to schedule an appointment) or providing some sort of system that regulates call-ins: grouping people by the first initial of their last name, reducing the number and volume of calls each day, or, last, utilizing email vs. snail mail to rectify those struggling to meet the short deadlines, in consideration of there currently being a major delay with USPS.  

We need answers and solutions. This shouldn’t be our problem. Tax payers are suffering. Instead of spending hours looking through the sparse job market or making the best of this downtime, we are having to spend many hours trying to get through to someone at EDD to fix our claim. WE NEED to be heard, we need to be addressed, and we NEED assistance that is rightfully ours.