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Calif. unemployment extension checks delayed until mid-Dec.
November 26th, 2008, 12:05 am · 11 Comments · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn

Jobless workers in California who have exhausted their benefits probably won’t be seeing their first unemployment check from the latest extension until mid-December, state employment officials say.

The reason for the delay? A clunky old computer system that takes a while to reprogram, says Loree Levy, spokeswoman for the state Employment Development Department. State workers also are off Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday so they won’t be doing any processing.

Levy says the agency probably won’t even begin sending out claims forms for the extension until Dec. 8.

“You can contact us if you think you are eligible,” says Levy. “But we probably won’t be able to begin processing those until at least next week.”

She advises workers to use EDD’s online application system because the agency’s phone lines are jammed.

Unemployed workers typically are eligible for 26 weeks of basic benefits. Last June, with unemployment accelerating, Congress approved a 13-week extension bringing the maximum benefits to 39 weeks.

The latest extension, signed into law Nov. 21, adds seven weeks to that first extension. In states where unemployment tops 6 percent, workers can get an additional 13 weeks of benefits bringing the maximum to 59 weeks.

California workers are eligible for the 59-week maximum because the state’s jobless rate hit 8.2 percent in October, third highest in the nation. Only Michigan and Rhode Island were higher, tied at 9.3 percent.

Levy estimates nearly 290,000 California workers have received extended benefits from the first round last summer. About 120,000 of them are believed to have already exhausted the first extended benefits.

Levy says EDD staff will be contacting those 120,000 workers to determine their eligibility for the latest extension. Those letters and claims applications probably will begin going out the week of Dec. 8, she says. Claimants must fill out the paperwork and return it before any checks can be processed so it is unlikely payments will be going out before mid-month.

EDD is also recalculating benefits for the estimated 170,000 who are still collecting first extension benefits to reflect the new maximum claim of up to 20 weeks. Those claimants will be notified of any additional benefits added to their extension claim, says Levy.

The extension comes as unemployment in California is beginning to skyrocket. In October 1.53 million Californians were unemployed — up by 95,000 from September and a 487,000 increase from October of last year. In Orange County, 99,100 workers were unemployed in October, pushing the local jobless rate to 6 percent, the highest since July 1994.

Source: Orange County Business News