The EDD Blues

Let's be clear right up front:  I am not destitute, I am a privileged white person who happens to be out of work. Privileged because I have a home, I have some money in the bank (enough for the short term) and I am healthy. No one discriminates against me unless it's because I am on the far side of retirement age. So my EDD whine is just that: whining.

Supposedly one should receive one's unemployment benefits in a timely manner, which should be ..... maybe within four weeks of correctly filling out the appropriate forms and correctly submitting them to the EDD, either by US mail or from the online site.  EDD tells us that we should receive our funds in 7 - 10 days, so I am giving them a lot of leeway by saying four weeks.

Currently there is no way to actually speak to a person at EDD.  Last week I called 16 times in a 30 minute time span, just hoping I would get on the wait list for a representative, but every time, after listening to the recorded voice drone on and on, I was eventually told "due to the high call volume you are shit outta luck. You are NEVER going to get a real human on this line."  Great.  What if I was a young Mom with kids, out of work, had to pay the rent, depending on EDD funds and NOTHING was forthcoming?  And that's a very reasonable and viable scenario, it happens all the time.

Sigh. What happens is one of two things. First, if you have fairy dust on you and the goddesses of free money smile on you, you will likely get your allotted funds within 3-4 weeks of certifying your claim, which one does every two weeks. But the second thing is not so pleasant: you do everything right and you sit in limbo with all those unsaved souls, waiting and waiting for either redemption or a check.  (Which are sort of the same thing these days.) If you are in the first category (as are almost all the people I know) you stay in that category. Your money comes to you (or the stupid B of A credit card onto which they load those funds) on a regular basis. Maybe not in the 7 - 10 days time frame but within a few weeks.

But, if you are in the second group, you have no idea when you will get anything.  I know I am in the "system" because I did get one payment in early April.  Then I waited and waited and waited.... since the only way you can contact EDD is by sending them an email from their online portal, I did that every day. I begged and pleaded, not for the money but just an acknowledgement that there was a small pot of gold out there with my name on it.  Just tell me you are going to pay me my benefits EVENTUALLY and I will be happy.  No one likes to be ignored, especially a 70 year old out of work cranky bitch.

Finally, two days ago, I got six weeks of payments. Now, they don't actually notify you when that happens until about two weeks after it happens. You have to keep checking the EDD online site to see if they funded the stupid B of A credit card.  Once they do that you then need to go onto the B of A EDD credit card site and attempt to get those funds transferred into your checking account. (You clearly do not need to do this but does anyone really want a B of A credit card? We want that $$$ in our checking account!)  This is ostensibly not difficult except for the fact that the site shuts down 9 times out of 10 as you are trying to use it. So it literally takes about 30 minutes to make the transfer, which should really take about one minute.

Again, I am not complaining. I got my money, and it was a hefty chunk of $$$.  (I do hope everyone out there in EDD Land understands that we are all going to be paying taxes on this windfall come next year. Ain't no free lunch kids, especially to the tune of that extra government gift of $600 a week.)   It would just be so nice if the system worked a little more swiftly.  But as long as that pile of cash is out there in EDD Land with my name on it, I will continue on.

Good night, good luck, be safe and be happy!

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