Lawmakers concerned about EDD stopping new claims for two weeks

California’s Employment Development Department and its inability to effectively handle the tidal wave of claims it’s received since the novel coronavirus pandemic began are well-documented in a governor’s strike team report released on Saturday. For months, KCRA 3 Investigates has been reporting on a massive backlog of unresolved claims, delayed payments, undetected fraud and a nearly-impossible-to-get-through phone system. In a briefing Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he expects progress will be made on remedying some of those issues if EDD follows the strike team’s recommendations. One of the main recommendations involves what the strike team calls a “burndown” approach. The burndown started Saturday and it immediately halted all new filings from unemployment benefit seekers. The pause in the system means anyone who is newly unemployed won’t be able to file for benefits until Oct. 5 at the earliest. Get the full story in the video above.