Unemployment Claim

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California has finally finished the two-week "reset" period for processing new unemployment claims.

Mercury News reported that there was a high number of new unemployment claims in California. There were at least 8.8 million initial claims since mid-March.

During this time, the influx of claims was because of the wide-ranging closure of businesses to combat the coronavirus.

As a report from LAist said, the two weeks off were set by the California Employment Development Department (EDD). It was the state's way of catching up with the backlog of new unemployment claims.

The state used that time to improve its technology systems. With the new systems, processing time can be cut down, and there will be less tendency of fraud.

When to Expect Claims

If a person from California filed for claims before the reset, they could still have their claims processed, said Business Insider.

But, as the EDD said in a statement, those who tried during the two-week break will not have their claims process until October 5.

On average, the time from filing a claim to the initial payment is 21 days.

There are nearly 1.6 million workers in California who were affected by this backlog. They had to wait for weeks or even months for their first payments.

The EDD saw two cases that happened with the unemployment claims:

  • There were 1.02 million people who received a second payment. Now, they were forced to wait for more than 21 days to get their second payment. There is also a chance for them to get disqualified from receiving any more payments.
  • Over 500,000 people filed a claim but had to wait for more than 21 days to get their first payment or be notified of their disqualification.

California's New Systems

The new high-tech systems will help during the verification process at the start of all applications.

It gave ways for the agency to "avoid the lengthy manual review," which delays giving away unemployment claims. Through the new ID.me, the EDD can start a more aggressive move to stop scammers.

Many fraudulent unemployment claims demanded the new technology, said the EDD. Many claims were filed under the same address or by using stolen identities.

Since August, there were 40 arrests made because of fraud on unemployment benefits.

So far, the EDD is still assessing how well the automated system will help in processing new claims.

The agency also clarified two weeks prior that the reset most affected would only be those who seek to apply for their first claims.

Californians who have existing claims can still use their accounts during that reset period.

EDD Director Sharon Hilliard added that there were plans to develop the agency's system. They were hoping for an expanded document upload feature for mobile users.

So far, no news on this update has been made. But it is expected to allow people to give wage information and file claims online.

The new system will also implement new measures to track claims daily.

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