The state's struggling unemployment department is being targeted by lawmakers who want to get unemployment checks flowing to out-of-work Californians.
"I slept with my computer on for eight days," said Laurel Carter, who waited and waited for word from the state's Unemployment Development Department about why her benefit checks suddenly stopped.
Late last year, the EDD temporarily terminated payments out of concerns that millions of dollars were going to fraudsters.
"Just to cast such a wide net and then see what shakes out, that was their mistake in their process," she said. "What about all of us?"
State lawmakers are trying to fix the struggling EDD, with a series of reform bills announced Thursday. State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez said her legislation would allow unemployment beneficiaries to get their debit card payments from sources other than Bank of America.
"The problem with everybody going through Bank of America, which we’re seeing, is that if you’re not a customer of Bank of America, they have no responsibility to be very accommodating to your concerns about your card being frozen or fraud or not receiving your card."
Other proposals call for more oversight of the agency, old technology, more consumer protections and addressing the rampant fraud. An estimated 1.4 million accounts have been frozen as law enforcement, Bank of America and EDD continue to investigate a massive fraud scheme.
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