SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After millions of unanswered calls and long waits on hold, California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) has rolled out a possible solution for people trying to get answers about their unemployment benefits.
The EDD has announced it’s launching a new callback feature that will hold a caller's place in line, without the need to wait on hold. Here's how it works:
- After spending more than 15 minutes in the queue, callers will be offered an option to have the department call them back.
- If you agree to the callback, you can type in your number and hang up.
- EDD says it will then hold your place in line.
- When you reach the front of the virtual queue, an EDD agent will call you back.
The callback feature is only available for English language callers right now, but EDD told ABC10's Dollars and Sense team that other languages expected soon.
Another key to the callback feature is that you need to get placed in the queue before it is an option. We have heard from many viewers frustrated that when they call EDD they are told to call back later or the line immediately disconnects. This means that the EDD queue is currently full. The callback feature will not solve this issue.
The phone numbers to call EDD remain the same:
- 1-800-300-5616 for UI Claims Support
- 1-833-978-2511 for UI General or Technical Support
Fixing the EDD call center wait times has been an issue highlighted by both the Governor's EDD Strike Team and California State Auditor. The department has hired more staff in the past few months but the call center remains overwhelmed.
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According to the most recent information on EDD’s Call Center Data Dashboard, it received more than 4.8 million phone calls in the week of April 25 through May 1, 2021. Staff answered 267,891 of the calls, which is an answer rate of less than 6%.
The EDD call center data does show that many people are calling back multiple times, likely either because they are not able to get through or didn't get the answers they needed.
