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The California state auditor this week criticized the Department of Employment Development (EDD) for its failure to help hundreds of thousands of unemployed residents throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while sending billions to inmates and crooks.
The report, released Tuesday, describes EDD’s inadequate handling of a surge in unemployment insurance claims after the government ordered businesses to shut down and residents to stay at home in response to the pandemic.
FILE: Person walks past the California Department of Employment Development office in Sacramento, California.
(AP)
“Millions of Californians found themselves unemployed and in critical need of assistance to replace some of the income they were relying on to pay for essentials such as shelter and food,” State Auditor Elaine said. Howle.
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The surge in claims in March – and again in December amid further closures – created a backlog of unresolved claims. Howle said the EDD “was unable to automatically process nearly half of the applications submitted online between March and September 2020”.
The report found that EDD dealt with the surge in claims by suspending certain eligibility requirements which inadvertently “removed a barrier to fraud.” Today, up to 1.7 million claimants who applied in good faith may have to repay the benefits they received if ESD deems them “retroactively ineligible.”
Howle said the state had “no clear plan” to address the backlog, saying it “represented a workload never before seen by the ministry.”
“This could have significant consequences for applicants,” said the audit.
Meanwhile, at least $ 11.4 billion in unemployment benefits have been paid in error to fraud cases since March, although some estimates reach $ 31 billion. The Los Angeles Times also reported last month that $ 400 million could have been allocated to inmates, some of whom are on death row.
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The state auditor noted that the ESD experienced similar problems during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. But although it is aware of these shortcomings – especially with its complaints process and its center for calls – he has made “no comprehensive plan for how he would react if California experiences” another recession and a surge in jobless claims.
“The claims surge in 2020 was unprecedented and would have presented significant challenges regardless of ESD readiness, but it has not acted comprehensively to prepare for downturns and address known shortcomings,” he said. declared the auditor. “As a result, its areas of weakness became major gaps in its response to the surge in claims, and these have been a cause of severe frustration for unemployed Californians in need of help.“
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Fox News has contacted EDD with a request for comment on the state audit but has not received a response at time of publication.
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