California lawmakers accused the leader of the state’s unemployment department of failing the public in a tense hearing Thursday that featured stories of people waiting weeks or months to receive their benefits after losing their jobs because of the pandemic.
More than 1.2 million claims, about a fifth of all applications, haven’t been paid out, either because the applicants haven’t taken the right steps or they are ineligible, said Sharon Hilliard, head of the Employment Development Department. It will take until September to process about 239,000 of those that are mostly ready to go but backlogged, she said.
“It’s difficult to say this as someone who generally believes in government’s ability to help, but EDD has been failing California,” said Democratic Assemblymember David Chiu. “Our constituents are depleting their life savings, going into extreme debt, having trouble paying rent and putting food on the table.”