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navigating bureaucracy
Nov. 22nd, 2021 08:50 amUnemployment insurance in my state is handled online. The agency's name is EDD, Employment Development Dept. I've found the system works pretty well. Until recently.
I filed for unemployment under the pandemic provisions, since the concerts I review for a living had certainly ceased so I was out of work. I went back to work in July, so I stopped filing, and that's the last I dealt with EDD until I got an e-mail recently: You need to submit proof of employment from before the pandemic or you might have to repay your benefits.
I logged on to my EDD account to read the details, which had a form for uploading document files, and made a note to go fetch my 1099 form for 2019 (I'm paid as an independent contractor). But when I'd done so a few days later, I found that now I couldn't get into my EDD account. It didn't like the password, same one I'd been using all along. I tried resetting the password; this required answering security questions I'd chosen when I set up the account. It didn't like those either.
How do I contact EDD? They don't have offices, only Job Training Centers. They have a phone number, but choose the right options and wade through various rigamarole like entering your SSN, and the automated voice tells you they're receiving more calls than they can handle, try again later, goodbye. It tells you this at 8 AM, the time they open. Clearly this is not going to work.
I remember that when B. had trouble with Social Security, she called our congresscritter's office for help, and they got an ombudser from SocSec to call her and straighten it out. This is state level, so I looked up my Assembly member's web page. Aha, they've got a prominently-linked whole page on dealing with the EDD. They cannot help you. They know about the "try again later, goodbye" and say, keep trying. I doubt that will help.
But they also have this, unrelated to anything else: "Press 1 during the 1st recording, then press 2, then press 4 to get through to an EDD rep." This takes me to some subsidiary office that has nothing to do with my concern. The automated voice says 3 minute wait. It's more like 15. But I reach a human!
And when I say I've been locked out of my account and need help getting back in, she doesn't demur. She asks me a bunch of questions (real ID questions, not made-up security ones) and sends a reset link to my e-mail. A real reset link that doesn't require me to answer the previous security questions that don't work; instead I set new ones and a new password.
And I log on. And it lets me in. And I upload my 1099. And I hope that satisfies them.
I filed for unemployment under the pandemic provisions, since the concerts I review for a living had certainly ceased so I was out of work. I went back to work in July, so I stopped filing, and that's the last I dealt with EDD until I got an e-mail recently: You need to submit proof of employment from before the pandemic or you might have to repay your benefits.
I logged on to my EDD account to read the details, which had a form for uploading document files, and made a note to go fetch my 1099 form for 2019 (I'm paid as an independent contractor). But when I'd done so a few days later, I found that now I couldn't get into my EDD account. It didn't like the password, same one I'd been using all along. I tried resetting the password; this required answering security questions I'd chosen when I set up the account. It didn't like those either.
How do I contact EDD? They don't have offices, only Job Training Centers. They have a phone number, but choose the right options and wade through various rigamarole like entering your SSN, and the automated voice tells you they're receiving more calls than they can handle, try again later, goodbye. It tells you this at 8 AM, the time they open. Clearly this is not going to work.
I remember that when B. had trouble with Social Security, she called our congresscritter's office for help, and they got an ombudser from SocSec to call her and straighten it out. This is state level, so I looked up my Assembly member's web page. Aha, they've got a prominently-linked whole page on dealing with the EDD. They cannot help you. They know about the "try again later, goodbye" and say, keep trying. I doubt that will help.
But they also have this, unrelated to anything else: "Press 1 during the 1st recording, then press 2, then press 4 to get through to an EDD rep." This takes me to some subsidiary office that has nothing to do with my concern. The automated voice says 3 minute wait. It's more like 15. But I reach a human!
And when I say I've been locked out of my account and need help getting back in, she doesn't demur. She asks me a bunch of questions (real ID questions, not made-up security ones) and sends a reset link to my e-mail. A real reset link that doesn't require me to answer the previous security questions that don't work; instead I set new ones and a new password.
And I log on. And it lets me in. And I upload my 1099. And I hope that satisfies them.
