If you are out of work and having problems getting your jobless benefits claim processed by the state, you’re probably not going to get a lot of satisfaction by calling the California unemployment office on the phone.
Your chance of reaching a human being on the telephone at the Employment Development Department (EDD) is slim and the state agency ranks near the bottom nationally in processing claims, according to a November report by the California State Auditor.
In a follow-up to a March 2011 report, the auditor found that the state still fails to start payments or provide information on nonmonetary eligibility for programs, like job training, in a timely fashion.
For the quarter ending June 30, 78% of initial payments were dispersed within 14 days. That’s an improvement over the 72% success rate two years ago, but still below the U.S. Department of Labor acceptable level of 87%. California earned a ranking of 41st among the states for its efforts.
The department fared a little better in getting nonmonetary information to the jobless. It ranked 26th among states by getting the info to clients within 21 days 75.3% of the time. That’s up slightly from 75% two years ago, but less than the 80% the feds would like to see.
The advances were small despite a significant drop in unemployment and claims between 2010 and 2012. The jobless rate fell from 12.2% to 10.4% and initial claims declined from 296,000 to 209,000.
But good luck complaining on the phone about any of this to anyone at EDD.
The Unemployment Insurance Call Center Network Platform and Application Upgrade, otherwise known as the new phone system, was completed in February 2011, but the department hasn’t taken advantage of system features that allow it to evaluate its effectiveness for development of strategies to reduce call volume.
Consequently, the auditor found that “found that millions of callers continue to have difficulty accessing the department’s new phone system and its agents.”
Specifically, 24% of all calls (17 million) in the last fiscal year were blocked. And even worse, of the 29.7 million calls in which individuals asked to speak with an agent, 24.9 million, or 84%, were unsuccessful. When callers would punch a button to speak to an agent, they would get cut off.
State Auditor Elaine Howle wrote that EDD could have solved many of its problems by following the suggestions her agency gave the department last year. So it repeated them this year.
–Ken Broder
To Learn More:
California Ranks 41st in Processing Initial Unemployment Claims (by Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee)
California Unemployment Agency Still Plagued by Delays, Audit Finds (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)
Review of Employment Development Department (California State Auditor) (pdf)