In summary
Workers denied pandemic-era jobless benefits are still struggling with debt and stress — collateral damage as they fight a state employment agency on edge about fraud and an appeals system facing a ‘historic’ backlog. What happens next with these and other legal battles will help decide who pays for a multi-billion-dollar debacle three years in the making.
It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.
In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.
Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier benefit backlogs that ensnared some 5 million people at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which officials have said was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.
Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government nearly $19 billion in unemployment debt.
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