A California lawmaker has requested further oversight of the state's Employment Development Department, during a time when thousands of workers are at risk of losing their unemployment benefits.
Many workers have been unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including Stacia Carney, a personal trainer in San Jose.
She was preparing to open a new gym right before the outbreak.
“Even though I hadn’t even opened my business yet, I hadn’t even made any income, you still were able to collect unemployment,” she told KCBS Radio. “So, I thought ‘oh my gosh, what a godsend,’ and it has been a godsend, until it wasn’t.”
Her bank account was one of 350,000 accounts revealed in a state audit that found the EDD and Bank of America suspended those because of suspected fraud, without any clear plan of how to unfreeze the accounts of workers who had filed legitimate claims.
State Senator Dave Cortese of San Jose requested further oversight of the EDD to help remedy the frozen accounts.
“These are real people with real needs, some of them with children, families, that are waiting, wondering where the next meal is going to come from – and we hear it,” he said.
Carney said she fears others who are without jobs will experience a decline in the weekly payments they desperately need.
Her bank account was frozen for about a month, and her second stimulus check never came in the mail.
“You know, I kind of live in fear that that could happen again,” she added.
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