Audit Finds 4 Million Californians May Have To Repay COVID Jobless Benefits

A new audit of California's Employment Development Department finds the agency was unprepared and had ineffective management to handle the surge in jobless claims during the virus pandemic.

In September, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee ordered State Auditor Elaine Howle to conduct an in-depth audit into EDD following a tidal wave of abuse reports.

One of the most notable abuses was rapper Fontrell Antonio Baines, 31, who fraudulently collected $1.2 million in EDD claims.

Now EDD is deciding how these folks will repay the jobless benefits they got during the pandemic.

Around 2.4 million people who received jobless benefits might have been ineligible, and 1.7 might have been overpaid, totaling more than 4 million people might have to repay the state government.

In December, EDD flagged 12.7 million eligibility issues affecting 2.4 million people.

To review the millions of issues, it would take the agency 3 million hours of work to resolve just half of the claims.
 

https://dawsoncountyjournal.com/blog/2021/01/27/audit-finds-4-million-californians-may-have-to-repay-covid-jobless-benefits/