California agency delays 119,000 unemployment checks (unemployment rate, interview, illegal, spokeswoman)

[mikeharnen]

There's now almost 150,000 Californians that filed Appeals for the denying UI benefits.

The motive is probably a substantial amount that paid into unemployment insurance are denied, most likely, because the state is not only broke, but $10's of billions in the hole.


California agency delays 119,000 unemployment checks - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2387258.html - broken link)

California agency delays 119,000 unemployment checks

Jobless Californians are facing eviction and homelessness because the Employment Development Department has been unable to deliver an estimated 119,000 checks for extended unemployment insurance benefits after the federal government approved extra money last month.

Legislators are getting calls from anxious and desperate constituents, while media reports about the growing problems faced by the long-term unemployed are emerging statewide.

Until early November, a mix of state benefits and two prior extensions of federal benefits gave jobless California residents up to 79 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits.

The Obama administration approved a third federal benefit extension on Nov. 8.

The move added up to another 14 weeks of benefits for residents of states with unemployment rates of 6.5 percent or higher. California's jobless rate is 12.5 percent.

More than 93,500 people statewide exhausted all available benefits between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 and haven't received a check since then.

More than 5,000 of them were from the four-county Sacramento region in September and October – 3,262 from Sacramento alone, according to the most recent available data.

Employment Development Department spokeswoman Loree Levy said EDD is doing everything possible to get its computers to spit out the third benefit extension checks to at least 119,000 eligible people as fast as it can.

"It's a horrible time for people to be without benefits, but every state has been challenged by the complexity of this extension," she said.

The job required 500,000 new lines of computer programming code so EDD's 25-year old system could process the transactions, she said.

That work is done and is being tested, Levy said, so the system doesn't crash under the extra workload. More than 1 million residents now get some form of unemployment benefits. Levy said the new benefit checks for up to $475 a week won't be mailed until just before Christmas – at the earliest.

EDD is urging people who think they're eligible for extra benefits to immediately apply online with updated information and not wait for EDD to send a check, Levee said.

The extra benefit checks will land too late for Yvonne Shine. The 55-year-old Los Angeles resident's landlord took her to court this week.

Shine lost her executive assistant's job at a union in 2007, held a temp job briefly and hasn't even had an interview in 2009. Her last EDD check came in August; and she paid September's rent with it.

Since then, she's relied on family and friends to pay phone and power bills. Shine said she tried to get EDD to give her a letter to show her landlord, saying more money was coming so she could eventually pay rent. EDD declined.

She called Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter. His staff tried to help, to no avail.

"I'm the face of jobless people. … Nobody should have to go through this," Shine said.

Shine said she has agreed to vacate her home by Feb. 15. In exchange, her landlord won't pursue her for rent owing or court costs. Shine is desperately looking for both a new place to live and new job.

For people like Shine, the next stop has often become a local homeless shelter.

This week, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune told the story of Kathy Verlinden, 56, of Covina, who became a resident of a church homeless shelter after EDD failed to deliver her additional benefit checks.

Verlinden gave up her $500 a month apartment after a two-year jobless stint. She told of asking friends to buy toilet paper she couldn't afford.

Florez said he and other lawmakers are hearing stories of despair from constituents statewide.

"We've been getting tons of calls from people being forced to move out of their homes at a critical time of the year," said Florez, who blames it on EDD mismanagement.

"They've had ample time and ample resources to be able to handle these challenges," Florez said. "They're hiding behind veiled excuses."

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, who chairs the Assembly accountability committee, said other states have been slow to hand out the new federal money, too. But EDD's antiquated computer systems and slow modernization efforts are undeniably a factor, one the committee expressed concern about this spring. "It shouldn't have to come to this," he said.

The slow delivery of federally financed jobless benefit checks is frustrating Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento.
Through a spokeswoman, Matsui said she's "deeply concerned that so many Californians are going without this lifeline because of an archaic computer system."

The state received $60 million at the start of the decade to upgrade EDD systems.

[malamute]

Yet California has the most illegals of any state, according to the politicians, it's because the unemployed of that state are simply unwilling to work, and they are planning to allow the illegals to bring in their many family members after they are given amnesty.

[Ceece]

Jobless Californians are facing eviction and homelessness because the Employment Development Department has been unable to deliver an estimated 119,000 checks for extended unemployment insurance benefits after the federal government approved extra money last month.

A late EXTENDED unemployment check is not the reason anyone is facing eviction or going homeless. It's money they wouldn't be getting except for the generosity of the people.

[Chatteress]

I think that it's pathetic how an antiquated computer system can create this mess of delayed unemployment checks. I really feel for my fellow Californians who are genuinely struggling during this economic down turn.