Unnight insurance. Ui, the earned benefit, seemed by covered employees, generally those who work for others and are not a part of the gig economy. Are you also going to hear pu or pua, pandemic unemploymentr o assistance. This is a temporary unemployment payments offered by the federal government to those who usually do not qualify for benefits, who are thinking in terms of business workers, gig business owners, i should say, gig workers in the selfemployed. Now, back to our edds lori leavy. Lori, i appreciate you joining us here today. I understand you had to rearrange your schedule to do so. Yeah, any chance to get out helpful information, i am all for. Thank you for a lot of claire identifications you just provided. Because there is so much confusion out there. It really does help to get that information. Excellent. Im glad. We are going to be taking, just so you know, we will be taking some of my questions and also questions from viewers who are watching right now when they send them in. So well be going back and forth. I want to start with my question, which is, do you believe the edd is doing a good job . I think were doing a pretty good job, all Things Considered and what was considered an avalanche. It kind of came at a perfect storm kind of situation, we were at record low unemployment. We had low federal funding and low staffing. We had to expand capacity very, very quickly. We continue to do so, hiring about 5,300 people and so far the news got out today, we have processed 8. 7 million claims in fourandahalf months. Thats more than all the claims we processed throughout the entire worst year of the recession. So you know, we have about 50 billion in benefits out there in the economy. I cant even imagine what the economy would be like right now without those really critical unemployment benefits. Abnd teluso many others, no one could see this coming. Thats actually not the case. George wentworest an attorney. I got a will be graphic number. And that, what he said in 2017 was this was expected. He predicted exactly this. Let me show you what he wrote in the today the Unemployment Insurance program is in far worst shape than a decade ago, with many states gravely unprepared for the inevitable downturn. Shouldnt the edd have been ready, if not fully staffed at least planning what to do when something leak this occurred . Well, a couple things all involved in that. So, first of all, we can only have as many staff as our federal funding supports. When work load goes ,fiwndo goe. It does, when you gunngset now which is great, then that means you are delayed process in terms of hiring. So we had an to be able t la staff up p as things started to turn around like any typical recession. This has been anything but typical. So thats one thing. Second of all, we have been working on technology. Unfortunate lip, states dont get a lot of money for technology in their Unemployment Insurance programs. But we do have a modernizati on initiatedon, which with legislators support. With the first phase completed in 2016. A lot of modernization efforts going in, into this bill. But in the meantime, this kit, so were trying to fees out little pieces of that modernization effort and get them in place now so it can astis the record numbeassist th of people we serve. An airbnb host, her sole income. She wants to know whether or no her . It depending on her earnings they are truly self employment earnings, she has no business going on, through no fault of her own. She lsely candidate for that pandemic unemployment assistance claim you mentioned, when you go through the same Online System on our edd website. We ask additional questions of you, but i do want to say, we found a lot of people on the pua claims. We must have a test that you are unemployed through one of 12 reasons that are provided to you. We find a lot of people are checking none of tm unfo rtunately, when you do tha, we are forced to disqualify you from being qualified for pua benefits. So its really important the federal government requires you must be unemployed for a specific covid19related reason and there is a whole list of them there when you apply. How many claims have been made here in the state of california so far, how many of them have received benefits . How many of them are still in limbo and then how many of them have been deni . You know, that is a very good question and the problem with that is, is that a claim can take much different twists and turns, depending on eligibility. This is a week by week eligiblebased insurance program. So what we have been releasing each and every week on our data d bo labor. U. S. Department of labor requires of us. We have paid a total of more than 50 billion in benefits. We have about 4. 4 Million People over the last few weeks collecting some kind of benefit payment. But it means that there are people that have open claims beyond that. Erfi forey whatever reason. They may have gone back to work. They were disquafied because ea. They werent able and available. There is a number of Different Things that could impact someones eligibility on a weekbyweek basis. We are working trying to configure some of our work hues to see if we can get out a better assessment, how many of those are going through this jourp my. We are hoping to get out thedas weeks ahead. To somebody like me who is not in the middle of it, it sound like you are keeping track of your successes and not youre failures . Unfortunately, thats the data thats required for us to post to the u. S. Department of labor. The u. S. Department of labor releases its new stats every thursday. We get out a newseaitel re tse data. We are doing everything we have readily available. We don there is no denial data element, for example. So each state has to cobble it together when you work different work queues, for instance, it will take longer to pros seas claim if you have to verify someones identity. If you have to do a wage investigation. If someones made mistakes. Now we have to go back in and kind of investigate. So those are the kind of things that will alwsay e t longer. Generally speaking and greatly for californians, because of a lot of the adjustments in our system, we can process large volumes of claims. Most people from the time they apply for benefits until they get their first benefit payment if eligible should be able to do so in about three weeks. Thats not what were hearing. Ill get to that in just a moment. We have a lot of talk about here. Has there just been a huge increase in people making claims, headlines in the papers and on abc 7 news, more people are unemployed and more people are filing claims. Is thator hap fpening right now . Absolutely. I can tell you then in the last Great Recession at the peak of that recession over a fouryear period, we had about 2. 2 million californians unemployed. Over the last four weeks alone, we had 4. 4 Million People collecting unemployment benefits. So yes, with nothing like weve ever seen this kind of demand in volume. So its everything we continue to do on a daily basis to strategize to see how we can expand capacity for better serving californians as we go along in a very unprecedented situation. You may have given me this number. I just want to make sure i have it. You said that 8. 7 million have applied, 50 billion have been paid. How many people have received those payments . You do have that number . Thats the it all se bauec depends, that ability we talked thats why we do a fourweek rolling dashboard, i can tell you 4. Over the lastour weeks and that kind of we do away with some of those in that element that could have been disqualified, that you know werent eligible to rveeiec to stopped certifying, all those kind of things. Thats our best estimate on the number of individuals who are getting paid. We are talking to the edd, the Employment Development department skeerle sptelesovisionn. But if you are watching us on at well as to how a have reverse mortgage works. People think that the bank takes your home, but that is not true. Thats absolutely 100 wrong. The home is ours. We can sell it if we want to at any time. I like the flexibility of not having a payment, but i can make the payment if i want to. Ty. Reuesponsible for keeping up your property taxes andyop for us, it w a securi the value of our house, was to fund our longterm health care. For years, reverse Mortgage Funding has been helping customers like these use the equity from their homes to finance their lives. They know the importance of having financial security. Make an appointment so they can tell you how it works. Its a good thing. Access your equity. Stay in your home. Have peace of mind. We are back broadcasting live on television as well as on our streaming platforms. This is lori leavy. Shes a spokesperson for the edd. She was kind enough to join us. She had to switch her schedule around in order to get that doran. She was just talking about the training of the new employees being hired. Weve heard that you are hiring many employees. How many have been hired . How many will be hired . And e theytrained . The phone was isnt trained. But there is Different Levels of training. To, for instan a ws some people go through days of edd training and theyre able to hat seesall system tis d ntin. Have toqu answer the more complex questions it takes about six months to do that. Ryto mway, there is training. Erweore and more tools available all the time to our agents. We have new technology coming on board all the time. So its kind of an evolving process. So how many people are have been hired . Well, weve made, we hired and were making conditional job offers to more than 4,900 individuals throughout california. Over the last matter of weeks. Then every week, we have other people coming out of training onto the uninsurance program to assist us with a number of Different Things that are important in this program that are involved in getting payments made. So it is an evolving effort and its continuing. Wed love to see it go much, much faster. But we are working around the clock to get it done as quickly as we can. Did you say you are only answering questions in the morning, so trying to call in the afternoon is a waste of time . No, im sorry. Just to clarify, we have our experienced staff, theyre taking some claims on a more complex kind of questions coming into the calm center line in the morning. In the afternoon, we need them to process some of the more complex claims that have come in throughout theday. So you d ont get further behin on any payments of those outlying kind of clamgs. Now, in the meantime, 8 00 to 8 00, seven days a week, we do have agents on the lean that can ask the more common asked questions that come into the call centers. I get many complaints about hangups. Now, i dont know how you are set up there. I dont know whats going on at the edd. But at other call centers, this is a way some workers use so they dont have as to work so hard, so they dont have to deal with tough issues. They just hang up on the person. I dont know what happened. Are you looking into that of the edd . Are you concerned that could be happening there . You know, i have no reports of any such thing. I do have reports of large volumes congesting the phone leans. And that we continue to try to. If we can get as many people as possible self serving as we expand our staff, thats when we will be able to open up further access on the phone lines to those people who do have to talk to a representative. So its kind of a combination of tax and they all have to work together. This is very common. June from nevada says applied three months ago, no card, no payments, cant reach anyone. What do you say to june . You know, it all depends on whats involved in that particular case, june. Unfortunately, i dont having a says to your case. We found a number of Different Things are hang. First of all, i spoke to a lot of different people selfemployed, for example. They applied before the end of april and got probably a zero dollar award notice. Unfortunately, we had no way of looking at self employment income until we were able launch that Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program at the end of april so if you didnt come back in around apply after april 28th, we have no income for you to process the claim. I had a couple individuals who had not done that. So i encouraged them to do so right away. So it all kind of depends on what situation is involved there and what eligibility issues may be involved. I want to go back to your call center and some of your employees there, because i have a graphic. This is graphic number three from a woman. Her name is lacy and this is so rude, i have a hard time believing it happened. She sent in an email explaining she had sent her information in and she was wondering how it was going. And she was told, you may want to g one day when 6 million unexpected new mscl i understand the frustration from your staff, but that just seems utterly unacceptable to me. How about you . I am very disappointed to hear that. I really am. I want you to know that there are a lot of we are people he at the edd. You know, our neighbors, our communities are impacted. Overyt we can to assist it is definitely, its the front lines of a very difficult economic crisis. So its tough on our staff. But let me tell you, we have people work around the clock. We have people working holidays, throughout the weekends, because we do care so much. So i am disappointed to hear that kind of thing and we really are trying to insure that we deliver the best Customer Service that we can. Heres a complaint i hear quite often, that someone calls. They get to a real human, which is a feat. They get to a real human. They are told they need to move that to someone more trained than they are and they never hear back. Well, unfortunately, we do have some callback lists that we are trying to get through. Oftentimes, the important thing we are finding is when we do call people back, sometimes theyre not answering the phone actually quite often. And i think it has to do with the fact that the number may not be displayed as an edd phone number. Remember, we have a lot of people teleworking. So we have to get out a lot of flip phones to our staff. They are working telework. So we are trying to work with our vendors to get that edd identification, so people will be more inclined to answer the phone. So thats a part of the problem. But again, were doing everything we can to triage and besuse we know a lot of people out there really continue to need the assistance. Lori leavy from the edd so who we are speaking with today. Im michael finney. Were going to take a brake on air. But the conversation continues ons,ur including ongoing basis. Mer those ombined are cceth tgso experience over the next few months. We are back on television live, lorison for the edd. We are taking questions f. You have one, can go online and feed it our way. I want to show you this is graphic number one. I want to show you, lori, the frustration that is being felt by those who are contacting me. Thats the wrong one there, guys. This is from myrna, she says, i cant believe its this diffic it would be better if the state would just open up. Id rather take my chances with the virus than edd man, if i was you, that would make me feel terrible,ri. Idesvasttating. Its heart breaking for us to hear that i can tell you right now, we all wish we had a magic wand and things can go ahead and expand capacity miraculously overnight. We really do we sincerely do care about helping our neighbors and our communities. This is a very tough road. Weve never faced a pandemic for Something Like this certainly for at least 100 years. So if there is a difficult medical front line and a very difficult economic front line and all we can continue to do is stay committed and to persevere, continue to rollout customer enhancements. We had a new enhancement coming the next couple msthon identification alert process by the way. People will be able to upload do canou cuthenntticates. Them inl time. Thats one of the things we continue to do on an ongoing basis, so we can serve californians better. Lets take a the i. D. Verification. I receive complaints about that one of the major ones is, is that in 2020 in california, the hightech capital of the world, in order to get your i. D. Checked, you have to go somewhere, make a copy, fold up the paper, put it in an envelope, lick the stamp and throw it in the mail. That just seems outrageous to me. Well, its certainly not as efficient as it should be. Correct . No, actually, as i mentioned, we had initiated a modernization project. We got some funding and some legislative authority to do so. We started that a few years ago. We have a vendor being selected in the nextouofth here. So a lot of that was going to be modernized in this new. We dont want to wait. What we have been doing is we have been able to start a project where that will get done in the next couple of months. Not only will you be able to uploadt on have the assistance aautaticnt ahe te much faster time. That will be a lot of help, particularly with this claim, whether were in a pandemic or not to verify identity. Again we are also charged with protecting the integrity of this program. So that only those who say that they are can get those benefits if they need eligibility requirements. No one wants send money out to con men or women or waste the cash. We all went to the government. It seems like theyre sending out money to a Large Corporation and send out the money. Then they go do the cleanup to make sure they werent ripped off. When it comes to individuals here with the edd, he assumption is maybe your lying will get that right before you get money. Here we are in the middle of this epidemic. Shouldnt we turn that around . Send out the money and then chase down the bad guys . Weve actually done quite a lot of eligibility adjustments, so that we can process large volumes of claims in a much more automatic fashion. Fortunately, yes, we have made adjustments. For instance, in a pandemic, you are not required to be looking for work that will not deny you any benefits. But you must be able and available. And we have a lot of people. We are required to do so by the next. If we dont do so we could lose our funding to administer this program. Then where will we be . Yes, we have been putting extra tips in education out there, the first two questions on your certification form, were you too sick or were you for whatever reason unable to accept work that were offered. You need to be able to answer work, i wasnt sick. I am available to go to work. Then we can process your payment. Those are the things we are continuing to try to get more education out there about. Unemployment payments are about to go down substantially. I know assuming congress doesnt get this worked out, where does that stand . What should people expect . There are so many people confused on that thank you for asking. Yes, through this pandemic, we have been able to add an extra 600 federal dollars to each regular unemployment benefit or pua payment we make that 600. This is the last week of unemployment we can pay that extra 600. If we are still processing your theks of unemployment through wismade until later, we can st pay the 600. Any week you spend after this week, trying to claim those weeks, thats where we cannot add that extra 600. Last like you said Congress Comes back and makes a change. I want to underline real quick. I only have a minute. So if you were qualified, but you didnt get the money for i. D. Or any other reason, you still will get that money once you are qualified, from this week back, correct . Absolutely. If you are qualified for those weeks, whatever was in effect and those weeks we will be able to pay you for. So it doesnt matter if that was paid later after this week, well still make you good on those weeks all covered bysehe Employment Development department here in the state of california, we really appreciate you taking time. Oh, are we going to continue talking or is this it, guys . Oh, okay, were taking a break here. But the conversation continues dearand with summer here,these energy bills are rising. Together, we can save energy and money. By taking steps to stay cool while using less. Keep safe and keep it golden. Possible. We continue to work fr. Ss im going to jump ieal quick. Because we are now back live on television. Were going to wrap up here. Her lori leavy from the edd, i appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us. Everyone for joiningnous this interactive show getting answers. Now, you can join me at 5 15 tonight for more unemployment coverage. 7 on your side is hosting a online only cry for help on abc7news. Com Facebook Live or youtube youre live. We will be here every weekday at 3 00. Continue on air and on live stream answering your questions. World news tonight is next. Tonight, several breaking developments as we come on the air. The u. S. Now reaching 4 million cases of coronavirus. Going from 3 million to 4 million in just 15 days. And what the president just said moments ago about the Republican National convention in jacksonville, florida. Now canceled there. The death toll rising in 28 states and puerto rico. Hospitalizations up in 41 states. And tonight, the new and grim forecast. The cdc now predicting up to 175,000 deaths by august 15th. And the audio tonight, dr. Deborah birx privately warning 11 cities with a surge to take immediate action. In parts of texas tonight, with the death toll growing, they are now bringing in additional refrigerated trailers. In florida, 55 hospitals saying th