California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) has reportedly frozen 345,000 disability insurance claims suspected to involve fraudulent activities utilizing stolen doctors’ and medical providers’ credentials. Consequently, this latest scam may burden the already stressed EDD, which experienced challenges in promptly issuing benefits to unemployed workers during the pandemic. Notably, they also disbursed around $20 billion in false unemployment claims to criminals. The department claimed that it had recently suspended 27,000 unreliable medical provider accounts and the associated 345,000 disability insurance claims. The suspended claims might include legitimate ones, thereby leading to a potential delay in handing out disability checks to needy Californians. The department is dedicatedly working with regulators and providers to validate these accounts quickly. Medical providers are required to confirm their identity through a reply to an official email from the department.

Ways to contact the EDD come in several forms, and eddcaller.com provides options including helping with how to get through to EDD and speaking to live persons in various departments. The site details the process of getting past automated systems and reaching a direct line to agents that can assist with unemployment issues, claim disputes, and more. It is crucial for claimants to understand how to effectively communicate with the EDD to avoid complications or delays in their benefits processing.