Another $300 in federal unemployment benefits are headed to California, with states like Louisiana issuing checks this week.
But continuing computer problems in the state's unemployment department are expected to delay that money for months.
Last month Sharon Hilliard, the head of the Economic Develpment Department, said it was taking between four and six weeks to return calls from desperate applicants.
Currently, there is a backlog of more than one million claims, which she said would take two months to clear, and the new money coming from Washington would require another 20 weeks of computer programming in order to distribute funds.
It is certainly not what lawmakers wanted to hear when they grilled her yet again this week. San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu is on the subcommittee overseeing the EDD. Chiu is not confident the new checks will be out soon because the department has not gotten the old checks in the mail yet.
This week the EDD told a hearing it cleared some of the backlog, but Chiu is skeptical.
The math does not add up," Chiu said. "We could not tell of the reduction in backlog what the outcome of those claims were. So literally what they could show is the number of the cases in the backlog has gone down, but couldn't tell from that backlog whether individuals actually received checks or not. And it was honestly painfully embarrasing to watch the EDD director to be unable to answer those basic questions." A jobless worker that qualifies for the maximum payment could get as much as $750 per week.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's strike team, meant to sort out what is not working at the EDD, is set to report back by mid-September.