State lawmakers reprimanded the state’s Department of Labor Development on Thursday, alleging that they had failed to overcome public anger over the delay in answering calls and processing claims for unemployment benefits from California who were excluded from work by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legislators bake EDD Director Sharon Hilliard at a budget subcommittee hearing on handling agents for an unprecedented 5.1 million claims for unemployment insurance benefits, voicing frustration that many Californians cannot get help on time.
“We have never heard the type of suffering people are experiencing at this time,” Assembly Member David Chiu (D-San Francisco) told Hilliard. “When they mention your bureaucracy, the feedback we get is terrible, and I’m sure we can do better.”
Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) said his voters complained that when they called EDD to ask for help, they often got recorded messages or the state telephone system hung up on them.
“Despair, frustration is extreme,” Lackey told Hilliard. “Even with a few direct calls [answered by representatives] we get a hangup. That’s really not acceptable. “
Other unemployed California complained that their efforts to submit applications on the EDD online portal were met with error messages, frozen screens and other disruptions.
“We are two months since the beginning of this pandemic, and there are still too many Californians who cannot even reach EDD or have not received unemployment benefits,” said Assembly member Todd Gloria (D-San Diego).
Hilliard said the lack of staff and the institution’s ancient computer system had hampered efforts to answer the flood of telephone calls from unemployed people and process their claims. He said the agency was a few weeks away from additional repairs, including the expansion of telephone lines which currently help people with claims from 8 am to noon every day.
The agency has moved 1,300 employees to work at the EDD call center, and another 600 are expected to be added in the next two weeks. Governor Gavin Newsom has also proposed more money for employment in the fiscal year starting July 1.
“We believe that with additional funds coming next fiscal year that we will have a lot of budget to continue to improve our services both at the call center, and by processing,” Hilliard told legislators.
The state opened a second call center which operates from 8 am to 8 pm. but lawmakers say representatives can only handle technical issues, such as changing passwords, and cannot help callers resolve problems with certain claims.
Hilliard said several callers to the second call center could get claim assistance and noted the agency was looking into the possibility of combining two call centers so people could get help with claims 12 hours a day.
The agency was in the process of modernizing its computer system when the pandemic struck and hoped to give a large contract in the fall to do a lot of work, Hilliard said.
“We have a system that is very inflexible. This is very challenging, “Hilliard said.
But Chiu complained that the modernization of the 30-year-old EDD computer system began four years ago and is expected to take another seven years, which he thinks is too long and will likely make it obsolete by the time it is finished.
“The idea that the modernization project will take 11 years is really unacceptable,” Chiu said.
