Beginning today, the Employment Development Department will open 25 offices statewide for four hours on Saturdays to help the newly unemployed use state phones and computers to file for jobless benefits. That includes the Fresno office at 2555 S. Elm Ave. The offices will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has been critical of the EDD operations, and said they haven't been doing enough to meet the huge demand for jobless benefits. Beginning Wednesday, Florez will hold hearings on how the EDD has handled the surge in jobless claims that have come because of the economy.
Here's more from The Sacramento Bee:
Director Patrick Henning announced the move after he and his department were criticized by Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who questioned whether "leadership at EDD" and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself were properly prepared for surging unemployment in California."This department clearly has not been proactive in preparing for the type of worst-case scenario they are experiencing," Florez said. "It also speaks horribly about the level of planning in the Governor's Office. There's been no planning for contingencies, compared to other states."
The Sacramento Bee first reported "how thousands of Californians have failed to reach EDD operators to file unemployment insurance claims by phone, despite dialing toll-free lines for days and weeks."
I've also been writing about this issue. In this column on March 15, I wrote about a Fresno woman's problems manuevering through the EDD system. She's an example of the problems the jobless face in accessing the unemployment system.
No comment, just a question. What is Director Patrick Henning's annual salary?
What!...The unemployed are going to have to give up a part of their weekend trying to secure benefits...It ain't Right!
I would believe one truly seeking employment would be willng to give up the WHOLE weekend if necessary.
It's not about getting employment. It is to get unemployment payments (an entitlement) to feed the kids, to pay rent. And while working, those now unemployed's taxes paid for the rent and for the kids of those who are supposed to speedily distribute the unemployment insurance payments. And since unemployment income has become taxable, even the now the unemployed pay for those bureaucrats. Grrrrrr
Isabel - Unemployment has been taxable at the federal level for a long time.
What is bad about the way unemployment is financed is that the employer pays the UI tax on the first $7000 of an employee's salary. In a boom time, lots of money goes into the fund and the UI rate decreases as it becomes flush with money. When there's a lot of layoffs, the fund gets depleted and the rates are increased. Therefore, companies that are still surviving are paying for the unemployment of those that have done lay offs or closed and no longer pay into the fund for those employees.
I don't know of a different approach but it ends up being unfair.
Fran B; with all due respect, did I with a single word voice criticism of business owners, who are hit hard equally? Or was I only critical of the bueraucracy in charge of the dispensing of unempoyment insurance claims?
Isabel - I wasn't criticizing you at all. Didn't even think about it. Was just commenting about how unfair the payments for unemployment are on existing businesses.
I agree with you that the government bureacracy has messed this up.
What is Patrick Hennings and Loree Levy's salary?
patrick henning's salary=== (bachelor's in philosophy) 34 years "labour experience"--hired/appointed in 2004 at $123,255.
I called the EDD director office @ 916-654-8210 and reps have called me racist slurs and told me that they will cancel my EDD unemployment case for complaining and that Patrick Hennign doesnt repsond to minorities. I was shocked of the behavior and unprofessional conduct this office has given me and others who needed help. I was hung up on about 20 times in one hour, when i requested escalated help on why i havent received my check and also no mailings from them of my unemployment status that i needed for the social service agency.
EDD cares nothing about the people who them in office. EDD is bad for the people who need assistance.
The EDD people I have talked with seemed competent and caring; it is the system itself that is the problem. When I had a question, I managed to get thru the phone gauntlet after hours of trying (which would have been better spent looking for work). The woman I reached was not able to do anything other than send an email into the system. So, all that time served only to dictate an email message, which I could have sent myself in seconds if they only allowed it. What a waste of her time and mine, not to mention the taxpayers' money!
Amazing how these old threads keep coming up. For example; "EDD office responds to Florez criticism about lack of help for state's unemployed" byJim Boren on March 28. It had a response on Oct. 1.. Peter Trudelle's post points out to us how the senseless bureaucratic red tape fails to serve those for whom it was created in the first place, and therefore it is a waste of time and taxpayer money.
To me, Tudelle's frustration with the system during a time of (his) being in need, points out what so many other citizen's had endured. Namely, society's (the system's) failure to solve human problems through humane social intercourse. Truedelle's commentary brought home to me again how human inventive genius can produce such technological marvels in the field of communication which when fully employed can be counterproductive to the human spirit. We humans, an extremely social species are being isolated from solving things through direct human contact. We are sitting at the computer, alone. We are at the telephone, alone with a recorded message or virtual person. (Oh God how genial, how horrible.) Let us enjoy those marvels of technology. Let them serve us. But don't allow them to run our lives. Give us back people to solve people's problems. It serves the human spirit and it serves society's enviable economic goal of full employment as nearly as possible.
My current (hope to be temporary) experience with EDD has been positive, although I've only interacted with them through their website.
Not bad for a "wealthy" blogger.