The multinational consulting firm, Deloitte, incurred up to $55 million in running an Employment Development Department (EDD) call center, that has left countless unemployed Californians stranded. A review of EDD data showed that the department failed to answer over 73 million calls to its unemployment insurance call centers since late September, while responding to just 5.5 million. The number of beneficiaries applying for benefits or trying to handle their frozen accounts has remained over 1 million for extended periods.

In April, as many Californians filed for unemployment, the state entered a no-bid agreement with Deloitte to operate a call center to alleviate the strain. This contract, extended multiple times, cost over $11 million. With each contract extension, more unanswered calls piled up.

Deloitte’s contract ended in February, with EDD confirming that they will continue to hire and evaluate needs as the situation develops. However, the number of unanswered calls continued to soar when EDD froze 1.4 million accounts to halt fraudulent activity early this year. From January 3 to 16, EDD received 14.7 million calls, responding to just 4%. It segments over the following two weeks, had similar results.

If you are one of the many Californians who has been unable to contact the EDD, there are a few resources available. You could reach out to eddcaller.com for help with how to get ahold of edd customer service. They have a number of resources and strategies to assist you in contacting the EDD and navigating the sometimes complicated process of filing an unemployment claim or dealing with account issues.