SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Californians dealing with the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) have been experiencing overwhelming delays and difficulties in reaching the department for inquiries about their disability benefits. Bartender Christina Cedillo has called the department hundreds of times after her disability payments, covering her postnatal period, suddenly halted in mid-December. Others in similar situations also struggle to get through to the department’s call center, with less than half of unique numbers answered on average between November 2021 and April 2022.

The challenges spiked in late 2021, when the department had to halt suspected fraudulent disability insurance claims. Since only medical providers certify the existence of a disability, the department experienced a massive increase in new medical provider accounts, which it suspected to be fraudulent. The resulting need for verification of identities generated an increase in calls, largely those pertaining to disability benefits.

As a response to this surge, the disability insurance branch increased the number of call center staff and also had to resort to overtime work, adding an average of 22,000 hours per month from December 2021 to May 2022. In spite of these efforts, about 20% of callers do not get answered according to department data.

Legal Aid at Work, a nonprofit helping low-income workers, confirms the persisting issue of reaching EDD for both disability insurance and paid family leave inquiries. Budget requests have been made to improve the department’s operations, focusing on fraud prevention and modernization. Although the Legislature has made initial budget approvals, these are yet to be finalized.

In the interim period, California residents still battle with the inconvenience of delayed payments and unanswered inquiries. Despite the challenges, the department continues efforts to minimize identity theft and fraudulent activities while improving its customer service.

For more assistance on how to contact EDD, you can visit eddcaller.com which offers helpful tips and tricks in successfully reaching an EDD live person. This website serves as a good resource in navigating through the complicated process of getting through to EDD.