For the next two weeks California will not be taking any new unemployment claims. The timing’s tough: more than two million Californians are currently out of work.
Officials said the move is an effort to prevent fraud and reduce a backlog of unprocessed claims - nearly 600,000 people haven’t been paid for more than 3 weeks.
Californians already in the unemployment system are not expected to see an interruption in their payments. But the EDD — that’s the Employment Development Department — it’s asking people who haven’t yet filed claims to share contact info ... so the department can catch up with the new backlog after the two weeks are up.
The two-week pause was recommended by a team appointed by Governor Newsom in July. Their job is to help the EDD work better.
