California’s huge unemployment claim backlog is back

The big unemployment claims backlog has returned.

The numbers reflecting long delays for people seeking unemployment benefits have exploded this month.

As of Wednesday, the latest data available, 916,531 claims were listed in the state’s backlog, meaning it’s taking more than 21 days to issue a first payment or disqualification.

Two weeks earlier, that backlog was 515,956. In September, just before the governor’s strike force recommended a major overhaul of how EDD operates, the number was about the same.

The state’s Employment Development Department explained that the big number is mostly temporary, the result of recent additions to federal benefits.

This month, “several temporary developments have led to recent fluctuations in the dashboard data,” said Loree Levy, spokeswoman for EDD, which manages the unemployment program.

These big January numbers are not what Gov. Gavin Newsom had in mind, however, when constituents complained of poor EDD service last spring and summer. He said in July he “anticipates eliminating the backlog of actionable (unemployment) claims by the end of September.“

On Sept. 30, the backlog was 1.56 million. EDD reported last week that more than 99% of the backlogged claims identified by the governor’s Strike Team in September have been resolved. The few remaining cases should be resolved by the end of the month.

But legislation signed into law by President Donald Trump December 27 created several new benefits EDD has had to manage. Among them are an additional 11 weeks of benefits in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs.

They’re designed to provide unemployment benefits to people who traditionally don’t qualify for regular jobless aid, such as independent contractors and small business owners..

The change not only means EDD has to adjust its system, but often requires the agency to add the new extended weeks of benefits to older claims.

Lawmakers frustrated over EDD

The ballooning of the numbers has triggered a fresh wave of outrage. The state often struggled last year to get unemployment money quickly to the millions of Californians out of work, and a special strike force targeted ways to ease the backlog.

“My office is very frustrated,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, who has been active in EDD issues.

Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, also wants clarity about the new numbers. He plans to ask officials about the trend at an Assembly budget subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

“We absolutely need to get an understanding of why the backlog of claims has grown so much in recent weeks. Not providing this information to the public only leads to more confusion and consternation,” he said.

EDD claims backlog jumps

On the page that describes the backlog of initial claims on the EDD website, it says there were 197,128 such claims on January 9. The next day, that number jumped to 748,044, and 10 days later reached 916,531.

That’s far higher than the 591,016 EDD reported on September 16, just before the strike force report.

On the other backlog page, which gives data about those who have received at least one payment and have now waited at least 21 days for another, the numbers also fluctuated wildly.

On January 9, that page listed 316,691 people in the backlog. The next day, that shrunk to 24,736. It’s been fairly steady, and was listed at 24,448 Wednesday.

Patterson said of the numbers, “They don’t make sense.”

Levy said the numbers have bounced around for several reasons other than just the new PUA and PEUC changes.

People have to complete a certification of eligibility if they want payment, and Levy said “there will always be cases where individuals may open a claim and never move on to certifying for payments.”

This change helps explain why the initial claims numbers has plunged as of January 1, 2021 before going back up again later in the month.

Another reason for the drops was what Levy called the “implementation of system enhancements to help us resolve pending work items more automatically.” This change helps explain why the continuing claims numbers plunged as of January 10.

With the PUA and PEUC extensions, EDD began making the additional payments earlier this month, and more than 1 million people are getting the additional $300 authorized by Trump and Congress.

The next phase of sending out claims, involving people who had PUA or PEUC claims that were exhausted prior to the expiration of the previous federal law governing the payments is in progress. EDD says it will notify those who qualify.