Some claimants in California's Employment Development Department's Unemployment Insurance program are shown a new glimmer of hope in reopening their claim.
As an unemployment insurance claimant myself, whom was affected by the EDD Fraud taskforce suspension sweeps implemented just prior to the new year (2021), I can relate to the disappointment and distress that many other claimants in California faced, in the passing of the new year, from 2020, in to 2021.
With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Disaster of late winter 2019 and spring in 2020 having wrought widespread civic and economic consequences, many individuals eventually found greatly needed and much-appreciated solace from challenging conditions imposed upon us by the Coronavirus outbreak, subsequent civic decrees of social distancing, shutdowns, curfews, etc., in addition to yet more difficulties and challenges that we experienced, localized in several hotspots throughout the nation, as well as here, in Los Angeles, which saw particular challenges to an already-burdened public health department, social services, housing, law enforcement, and mental health services array of local government departments and organizations.
Following the coming of the new year, the notice of the suspension of many people's claims in Unemployment Insurance was delivered in our online UI inboxes, with Fraud and Identity Verification processes being necessarily verified, due to several flagging parameters of a user's account, such as multiple claims from within the same household address, questions about the legitimacy of certain claims, as well as the willingness of workers who had filed for unemployment to seek out employment, as they receive UI benefits being one of the determining factors in continuing benefits distribution to individuals; of the common procedure in how benefits are usually distributed. The COVID-19 crisis saw the EDD offer more lenient circumstances to unemployed beneficiaries, as far as seeking new work, as one of the circumstances that was stricken from the requirements, for the time being, for the sake of the difficulties imposed by the disaster.
Apparently, some UI claimants will see a glimmer of hope, in reopening their cases. (I had particular difficulties in the former identity verification process that the EDD had deployed, as a solution for suspended claims, since I had recently lost my wallet and ID card, which was part of the process in reopening a suspended claim). This morning, I discovered a new message in UI Online, the Employment Development Department's Unemployment insurance online portal for certifying for claims, on a bi-weekly basis, as well as for managing communications, tax forms, payment information, and account history.
The new, more streamlined process is less challenging (given my particular circumstances of having lost my ID card), and takes just a few minutes to complete. Some of the questions included in the claim reopening form ask about the claimant's most recent work history, information about their former employer, and any information about the claimant seeking job opportunities, job training, or education paths that would lead to employment, in the future.
With claim reopening wait times having been projected as taking about a month, or more, I'm sure that the news of having our claims suspended was a quite challenging and disappointing occurrence to discover in our UI Online message inboxes. I'm not sure how widely implemented this new claim reopening process was distributed, amongst the user accounts who were included in the temporary claim suspension and ID verification process, but hopefully, this bump in the road, for some, will see things through to a timely and quicker resolution for their claim accounts.
In lieu of receiving news of the claims being reopened, however, I would suggest that individuals still proceed with, and follow through on the identity verification process, through the provider website at ID.me. Individuals whose claims were suspended were given 10 days to verify their identity, or mail a letter requesting an extension for completing the identity verification process.
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