Employment Development Department
reviews and complaints

I have been attempting to reach someone, anyone since January. It is now May and I have sent over 20 emails to edd message center. I have not received A SINGLE RESPONSE TO A SINGLE EMAIL IN FIVE MONTHS. The website says they have sent me almost $3200, but I have not received a penny. If there is fraud happening, I have no idea not to find out or notify someone. This is awful. There is no way to reach a human.

Due to Covid it's nearly impossible to get through to EDD. I started calling the moment they opened at 8am. I finally got through and held for 10 minutes then was told I needed to be transferred to something called level 2. I was on hold for 2 hours while I was getting a root canal and my dentist actually started and completed his work before I was transferred to someone. When the woman picked up I was in my car and spoke to her via speaker phone. She then asked me if I was driving and explained that I was, but had her on speaker phone but that I was pulling over. Evidently she was upset from a previous call and got extremely nasty and said I wasn't allowed to call Edd while in my car. I explained once again that I had pulled over and she continued on her rant. I didn't say anything for fear she wouldn't help me, but she decided to hang up anyway.

People are literally starving and being thrown out of their homes due to lack of money and this nasty woman decided to play god and decided she didn't feel like helping me. This is nothing short of cruel and inhumane. How can an state run government employee be allowed to get away with this type of behavior especially during this time?! lly starving and being thrown out of their homes due to lack of money and this nasty woman decided to play god and decided she didn't feel like helping me. This is nothing short of cruel and inhumane. How can a government employee be allowed to get away with this type of behavior, especially during this time?! This woman should be reprimanded to the fullest degree if not fired! I'm sure I'm not the first person she's done this to!

I've certified for the first 2 weeks of April and I have still not received any funds. I contacted EDD about not receiving my funds, I got an email confirmation about my message to Edd and it says I'd be contacted within 5-7 days. It's been more than 7 days and I have not heard from EDD. I attempted to call them early in the morning every day multiple times and can never get through. I get a recorded message saying, "your call cannot be answered at this time". As of now I have not recieved PUA benefits since March. And no UI benefits for over a month.

The last time I certified for UI benefits I was only allowed to certify for 1 week because my UI benefits balance was not enough to pay for the second weeks certification.

On 4/14/21 I received the following information regarding the benefits paid for the week ending on 04/03/21. I cut and pasted a copy of the message that I got on 4/11/21 via my UI online account to support my complaint.

EDD Notice
Regarding Week(s): 04/03/2021
The following messages pertain to your certification for the week ending date(s) mentioned above:

YOU HAVE RECEIVED ALL BENEFITS PAYABLE ON YOUR CLAIM. YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR EXTENDED BENEFITS. IF YOU QUALIFY, THE CLAIM WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE FILED. NO ACTION IS NEEDED ON YOUR PART. YOU WILL BE NOTIFIED BY MAIL OF YOUR ELIGIBILITY.
YOUR CLAIM BALANCE AFTER THIS PAYMENT IS $0.00

Thank you,

Employment Development Department
State of California

Then on 4/14/21 I received another notice . I cut and pasted a copy of the message that I got via my UI online account to support my complaint.

2nd Notice form EDD
PEUC Notification

DATE: 04/14/2021

Re: Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) Extension

You are potentially eligible for a Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) extension under the CARES Act of 2020. The PEUC extension provides an additional 13 weeks of UI benefits. If the EDD determines that you are not eligible for a subsequent valid UI claim, then the EDD will automatically file a PEUC extension on your last valid regular UI claim. You should receive a notice by mail within the next 10-14 business days. Continue to certify for benefits as weeks become available.

Thank you,

Employment Development Department
State of California

I have not been able to continue to certify for benefits because there are none showing . According to the 2nd notice it states that I will be notified within 10-14 days of this letter. It is now May 1, 2021 it has been 17 days and I have no idea what EDD has determined I qualify for. My claim does not end until 08/02/21 and I was receiving UI regular benefits.

I have sent them 2 messages via UI online Contact us emails and have gotten no responses. the 1st question I sent was on 4/14/21 and the second one was on 4/24/21. They sent confirmation of receiving them but have yet to answer my questions.

All I want is for them to let me know the status of my claim.

The website is very pretty and looks so easy to complete an application online. The reality is the online application is idle sitting in their database with no progress. If there is a need to ask question, you will be referred to different phone numbers but... You will not be able to connect to these lines. My application has been sitting there for almost 60 days and still showing pending while but has all the weekly certification completed.

I have been unemployed since March 5, 2021. I filed a claim with the California EDD on March 7, 2021. When I got my confirmation letter in the mail I noticed that the effective date of my claim was February 28, 2021. How could that be when I completed my application with the claim start date of March 5, 2021. Also, as of today April 26th, 2021, I have not received any payment from EDD. Everything I call I am told I need to wait my turn. Two months later and no money from EDD.

After successfully appealed EDD's claim of fraud identity in February 2021, the claims benefit first showed pending, then it showed $0.

I tried contacting EDD by phone every few days. No answers, no recording. I emailed EDD few times. No response.

Now, they have deleted my claims page. i.e. I do not even have an account. There is no explanation, no letter, no communications.

What is going on at EDD? This is how California take care of unemployment?

I am in PEUC extension, EDD had me audited last year, all was OK, my benefits were approved for $450/week PUA (consultant, contract engineer) that were supposed to last through 4/2021

Early this year they wrote me a letter that they will switch my benefits to PEUC Extension, starting 02/07/2021,
* Since then, two offices Ne San Diego another San Bernardino started new claims for me on their own,
*San Diego disqualified me and 4 certifications related to the claim;
*San Bernardino approved same exact certification, disqualified PUA and one certification related to that.

As of then, March 2021 I had different agents in different offices contradicting one another, I contacted senator, assemblywoman Marie Waldron office contacted EDD, they agreed, to fix issues, extend my PEUC $450 a week;
They are still playing games, sending bad letters making mistakes they already agreed to solve, over and over, holding my benefits since 02/07/21, I have received 3 weeks benefits instead of 9 weeks;
I have letters to back this up.

I have not been paid my benefit payments since December 2020 going into new year 2021 new changes were made to pay extra benefit payments to claimants, as I been waiting very long to certify for benefits no certify weeks are available eveytime I log in I call 800 number and finally after 100th call I get rep who tells me reason my payments are stop is all she sees is the word INCARCERATED! nothing more, nothing less I ask what exactly does that mean she says I don't know but I'm guessing she tells me is perhaps send proof that I'm not incarcerated WTH! I told her of course I'm not incarcerated I've been logging in my acct everyday and when I was receiving my payments the system can track and see where I use my edd Bank of America card on purchases and activity and track location of my atm withdrawal this is ridiculous! I said where is the extra high security system to already know this info or a person who has a claim already open since 9 months and all sudden stop cause u see the word incarcerated ! So I don't know what to do or how to get my payments back I can't even file an appeal because I have nothing to go by

as oF march 21 my yearly ui claIM end i talked witH a phone rep and she said i needed to file a new claiM even if i was still on my fed ed extension so i did and my pay was stop into pendinG under review, ive called back numerous times and really each person had a reason, i found out that the first rep shouldint put in a new claiM for me since i havnt worked any in a year and should just have extended my claim its now been over 3 weeks with no hElp still under review reps have said all is good with everything on my claiM just need them to ok my exSTANDTION i need help today cant pay rent buy food for family pay utility bills gas in my car please HELP ME KEVIN WOLK [protected]@YAHOO.COM

Hello,
My name is Sara Figueroa. I had my EDD phone interview today 4/5/2021 at 10:58am. The phone interview representative was Ernest. Ernest had no empathy to the situation. He was rude by raising his voice at me and at times I felt attacked. I worked with my company for 10years and due to the pandemic, I was forced to make the decision of separating myself from the company not having any other choice. It was not an easy decision to make. Unfortunately, my daughter fell in to depression due to the pandemic and my son is ADHD and needed special help with school. In addition, my 7 yr old is learning how to read, I have to help her with most of her school work. I've always provided the best customer service to my internal and external customers at my job. However, the pandemic created much stress, fear and hardship in my family as to many others. I understand that the representative's job is to interview, but I don't think it is necessary to practically yell at me and say, " So, you were not able to separate your job from your domestic duties!?" This made me feel worst and as I was expressing my situation, I broke down in tears because "No" I obviously didn't know how to separate the 2. It is not easy to see your children fall into depression and having to help your special education child through school while your doing homework with your 7yr. old plus other domestic duties. I care about people I work with and I care about my family. I provide good customer service and this includes care, compassion and empathy. I'm assuming that this is not part of the EDD's job description. At this point, I don't know what will happen with my case because this interview just happened today. However, I hope that representatives conducting interviews are more empathetic towards people's situations. Many of us were emotionally impacted by the pandemic and it's good that they have a job and were probably less impacted, but not everyone is as fortunate as they are. There could be other people dealing with a worst situation than mine if they had this type of interview, it could impact someone's emotion, and mental health negatively. I hope this feedback helps for future interviews. I greatly appreciate your time.

My name is Jeffrey Riddle and my reason for this complaint is it's been 14 weeks since my last payment from EDD. It has cost me everything, I have no income and my bank account is at negative $63.00. This is all because of their ID me launch to prevent fraud that more closely resembles a joke that's on me and has drastically affected my son and I and our way of life. I understand the necessity of such procedures and the absurd amount of fraud that has evolved around this Pandemic, but 14 weeks is completely untimely and I'm still told to wait as or Friday 03-26-2021. On approximately January 1st 2021 I noticed a required ID me link on my active unemployment claim and responded promptly. After about two weeks my claim was changed to disqualified and to the present date I still was never issued a denial from the EDD or provided a appeal to dispute the disqualification which is against their protocol and is my right if I'm not mistaken. After literally hours and hundreds of phone calls I was told my documents provided weren't acceptable specifically my secondary document. I uploaded the county provided birth certificate accidentally and it has cost me to say the least. Immediately after talking with the representative I printed off my own appeal form and sent it certified mail along with copies of my drivers license, state issued birth certificate, bank statement and social security statement to the EDD headquarters in San Francisco all in an effort to avoid delays with my unemployment claim. After months of waiting I know that my file sits at the Fresno office of appeals and has yet to be processed. I've contacted my district 12 representative and they uploaded all the above mentioned documents via their legislative portal to EDD. I'm given 10 or in some cases 30 days to respond in a timely manor as the EDD puts it yet after nearly 98 days I still wait on them to accept that I'm me by the paperwork I submitted which is far beyond timely and has left an extreme hardship for my son and I. I've been treated rudely by their under trained, uneducated employees who are still getting paid and I've worked my whole life and paid into the EDD system and more then qualify for the assistance yet I have lost everything I've worked for due to their lack of appropriate response time and quickness to jump conclusions. Fingerprints seems like the logical way to verify ones identity and if that was the required method could have avoided this whole mess in the first place. Attached you'll find correspondence with the senators office and verification that they uploaded the documents. Thanks You for your time in regards to this matter. My contact email is [protected]@gmail.com

My certifications have been pending since January 16, 2021. I understand that EDD is facing a lot of fraudulent cases and have been patient, however, the times I have inquired about my claim, the customer service via telephone is extremely dissatisfying. Today I was faced with an extremely rude woman who literally told me, with attitude, to "listen ok!" and trust me, I am not a rude person to begin with. I was asking her for clarification on how she could possibly help since I was transferred there. She was like "I have no idea why they transferred you here, " like girl neither do I but I still need help. I spent almost 2 hours on the line, waiting and being transferred to different departments. Ricardo, the "specialist, " transferred me to the rude woman. He seemed like he was doing a decent job but made concerning remarks, such as "oh I didn't know I could do that." Hearing that made me question this overall system. I am currently waiting for an interview to be set up and all I wanted to know was how long that typically takes and that woman who helped me was so rude and continued to repeat the information she stated with heightened attitude. If I was able to work part time I would because this is such a pain relying on rude representatives to provide you with poor service. All I would like is an estimate on how long the interview process is and whether my claim has been forgotten or if it is truly so backed up with the EDD process. I have been truthful about my claim and am unemployed due to graduate school. I was working the first months of graduate school and it was difficult to balance my school and work so I had to quit. I was grateful that I was approved for EDD because of my reason being and it disheartens me that people who are in need, much more than myself, are probably facing the same issues as me but worse. Please do better EDD employees.

I filed a claim back in April 2020. I haven't gotten a penny nor correspondence. I just got a paper back in April 2020 says $0 no more information or what to do next. I called after that and the only that I finally spoke to someone after thousand of calls told me that since I'm self employed I needed to file for pua instead of regular ui but that my claim will automatically change to pua on April 28, 2020; it never did. I've been calling since then millions of times with no luck, and the only few times I've gotten someone they say it's not their department and dump the call or put me thru the phone tree again which typically takes for someone to take your call around 1.5 to 3 hours, when I already waited the same amount of time when I talked to them. Nobody has helped me and the last time I called and gotten someone and I asked her to see the notes she said: "I'm not gonna retrieve 300 pages" and I replied I don't appreciate the attitude and she put me on the phone tree again! If this reps don't want to work they should quit and give the opportunity to other people that is really eager to work. EDD should have their reps to put in an employee number when they take a call so they are monitored of the calls they take.

The EDD owes me thousands of dollars.

The EDD never contacted me as they were required to do BY LAW when the Cares Act was initiated and small business owners qualified for benefits. They owe me from the beginning of this program including all the plus ups.

EDD started off paying me $179 a week instead of the $450 they owed me. they fixed the mistake and never paid me the back pay from their error...SUCH CRIMINALS!

The EDD owes me for 10+ certified benefit weeks. keep saying they will pay...never do...CRIMINALS!

I have applied and ben approved for pandemic assistance. Understandably the ID verification was required despite having an account that was paid on since 2017. I sent back all docs proving identity, sent more than was requested to avoid any delays. That was Jan 24th. I now have 5 weeks showing pending. After repeatedly trying to get help I was able to talk to an EDD rep, the first opened an escalation so an analyst could review it quickly. No traction there, the second rep said call in another week. The Third rep wrote an email directly to the department reviewing my identity, all noted these in my account profile. The last rep said call back in a week.
I have been calling non stop for 3 days. Either say can complete call or sorry we are getting more calls than we can take. Who can help I am in dire need of the assistance, replied the same day any request came in. I cant get any traction, have more than provided proof its me (including copies of other CA state agency mail to me) and I'm getting nowhere except to sit redialing over and over and over.

I am officially filing a complaint about the EDD's ongoing payment pending problems. I currently have 4 weeks of unpaid payments and have made numerous phone calls and sent several messages. Nothing has been resolved as of March 8th. Please fix this asap as many people are in dire need of this assistance to pay their bills.
Thank You

I have called since my benefits stopped in 11/2020 everyday, multiple times a day with out fail, only to get a recording that says they are unavailable since 12/20. I have not received benefits, unable to certify, and no response with online contact. The issues started in 9/20 when I was asked to verify my identity and then received a couple weeks of benefits in october and then my account was flagged again as fraudulent in 12/20 and have had no way to verify or move forward. I was told I would have a opportunity to verify again and received nothing. I was able to speak to a rep in 11/20 and she could see that it was a mistake on their part and she would file a request and would not let me slip through the cracks and that was the last time I had any communication.

The california EDD system is worthless and non functioning. Back in September, someone tried to file an EDD claim under my name and Social Security number. This was stopped immediately thankfully, however my account has now been blocked. I cannot reach anyone, or get any information on how to unblock my account.

I have mailed and faxed several copies of my legitimate identity to clear up my account, as I have now been unemployed for 10 weeks, and cannot even file a new claim, or get help from EDD. When I try to call the 800 numbers, I only get endless automated messages that eventually just hang up on you stating "we are not able to accept your call at this time." There is NEVER a live person to speak too.

If I try the fraud department, there is a three minute automated message in both English and Spanish repeating numerous messages in an attempt to make the caller hang up in frustration. After sitting through this indignity, you are allowed to leave a message, but no one ever calls back.

We must ask ourselves, why do we allow the state to do this to us? Why do we allow a system to cause so much grief and frustration, when they are the ones who have put us in the situation?

Something needs to change, and it needs to change soon.

The CA EDD forgot to put PEUC in place when they redid my benefits. I was originally getting 61/wk in their error and finally when I got them on the phone they changed it to $450 - However, in the process they forgot to give me the required PEUC extension to continue my benefits after the first 26 weeks. Instead of giving me the 13 wks of PEUC, followed by 20 wks for Fed-Ed extension, they mysteriously gave me 30 weeks and then put me straight on a 20 week Fed-Ed - Many reps keep saying they would redo it and "order" the PEUC, but failed to fix it, not to mention they still owe me $1800 from the summer ($389/wk for weeks ending 08/01, 08/08, 08/15, 08/22, and $244 for 09/05) —— Every rep I talk to has a different answer and the last rep I talked to was extremely accusatory against me. I have been in major depression because of this.