Over the weekend, out-of-work Californians started flooding social media with complaints about not being able to get through to the Employment Development Department’s website so they could certify their eligibility for unemployment benefits.
The EDD says the glitch is only impacting a certain group of applicants.
While you can still access your UI Online and SDI Online account, some claimants are experiencing issues with certification. Over a half-million people certified for benefits. We are working to fix this as quickly as possible and will keep you updated.
— EDD (@CA_EDD) March 23, 2021
Though the agency hasnât confirmed whatâs causing the error messages, some of the processes weighing down its already fragile systems include a backlog of over 1 million people, going on two straight months, and up to 900,000 claims still in limbo after EDD put them on hold in an attempt to combat fraud.
3/18: 1,062,440. This is the seventh week the backlog has topped 1 million claims.
— Emily Hoeven (@emily_hoeven) March 19, 2021
In mid-February, EDD confirmed a little over 400,000 of these frozen applicants had verified their claims. Since then, the agency hasnât provided detailed figures, so itâs anyoneâs guess as to how many people are stuck.
On today's #EDD media call, no new updates on how many more people from this freeze have verified their identities.
EDD said they could be disqualified starting mid-Feb. if they didn't verify, but wouldn't confirm whether it's made any disqualifications.h/t @radiowagner for ? https://t.co/r9VIocB5M2
— Mary Franklin Harvin (@EmEffHarvin) March 4, 2021
The employment department is now trying to distribute funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law by President Biden a couple of weeks ago. The process is complicated, because EDD has to reconfirm the status of claims to make sure applicants are still on the right program, and then channel the appropriate amount of money into their accounts.
The agency has already said it could take until mid-April, if not later, to implement the necessary changes.
On top of all this, countless Californians are also reaching the 1-year mark on their regular unemployment insurance claims, which means they have to refile their applications. This normally shouldn’t cause a problem, but the system is already so overloaded, if an error during refiling snags an application, fixing it can become another major hassle, and yet an additional opportunity for out-of-work Californians to get tangled in the system.
Cannot even access account. Forget certification. Auto phone system not working either. This is the screen I get when I try to log in. pic.twitter.com/z0c1YILs7K
— Paul R. Banks (@pbnyc4) March 23, 2021
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