SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Some 185,000 California unemployment recipients who have been waiting since December to receive their benefits can now start certifying with the Employment Development Department.
The backlog stems from a “programming infrastructure” problem the EDD said would halt the processing of new payments until Mar. 7.
The affected group includes PUA and PEUC recipients who had their claims expire before the end of 2020. The federal COVID Relief Bill passed at the end of last year extended those benefits but EDD said it need to do some programming to get the benefits to eligible people.
The benefits extension is good for 11 additional weeks of PUA and PEUC. People will be able to certify and be paid for the missed weeks in January and February.
This round of extended benefits ends on March 14. EDD said it is watching what is happening in Congress, as a third stimulus could include another extension for PUA and PEUC, along with a $400 boost to unemployment claims. At this point, it is not clear if EDD will need to do further programming to get those benefits to claimants or if there will be a gap in benefits.
The EDD has also seen modest declines in backlogged claims. The largest decline was made in backlogged continued claims, with a 6.1% decrease. The backlog in new claims only declined 0.2%.
Nearly 1.1 million recipients are still waiting to receive benefits.
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