Hey, guys, it's Ginny Silver.
And today I have an update for the video in the state of
California about most of the major issues and updates with
a California Edd in the last week, I like to provide one
centralized video where I compile all of the most recent
updates into one long, dense video so that you have a one
stop video to go to get your questions answered.
These videos are done, so please be sure to use the Timestamp
menu listed down below in order to navigate to your specific
topic of interest.
First, Let's talk about the end of your benefit year.
The Edd has recently updated the requirements that you must
follow when you reach the end of your benefit year in order
to know exactly what is required of you.
When you reach the end of your benefit year, you first must
understand the type of claim that you have.
If you go to your UI online dashboard and you click on Claims
history, you click on the most recent paid transaction.
You will view the program code for your type of claim.
If it States disaster assistance, that means that you are
pay. If it States that you are UI, PEUC, Tier two, Tier 2
Augmentation or Fed Ed, then you UI based claim.
Now, Pua claims are not required to file a new claim when
they reach the end of your benefit here.
But if your UI PEUC or Fed Ed, then once you reach the end
of your benefit year, the Edd has recently updated the requirements
for you to continue collecting your benefit year expires
12 months after your claim start date.
So from your UI online dashboard, locate your claim start
date and count 12 months out if you are beyond those 12 months.
Even if it States on extend, you have reached the end of
your benefit year.
Now, the Edd recently changed their procedure when you reached
the end of your benefit year.
Claimants who have reached the end of their benefit year
but did not work at all within the last 18 months are not
required to file a new claim.
Additionally, if you worked but it was not enough in order
to establish a new claim, you are also not required to file
a new claim, and the Edd has stated that they will extend
your claim automatically did not work within the last 18
months or if you did work a little, but it was not enough
to establish a new claim.
The Edd no longer requires you to file a new claim.
If you did not work, you do not need to file a new claim.
The Edd has stated that they will apply the extension to
your claim automatically.
If you reach the end of your benefit year and you did work
within the last 18 months, the Edd does still need you to
file a new claim.
If you were unsure if you earned enough in order to qualify
for a new claim.
You can check this by attempting to file a new claim from
UI online.
Instead of clicking Register Existing claim, you're going
to click the button on the left to file a new claim.
If you are permitted to proceed with the application, then
the Edd States that you must file a new claim.
If the application is rejected, then Edd States that you
are not required to file a new claim if your application
is rejected.
I recommend that you utilize EDD's Benefit Calculator to
double check and make sure that you do not, in fact qualify
for a new claim.
This way, you are double checking the system just to make
sure that there are no glitches preventing you from filing
a new claim.
Now, for those of you that filed a new claim and were denied
a new claim, you're going to receive two notices in the mail.
If you're denied a new claim, you are first going to receive
an Invalid claim notice and it's going to state a zero dollar
award. This means that you're being denied a new claim due
to your lack of wages.
Following this Invalid claim letter, you will next receive
about a week later a notice to extend your old claim.
About a week after receiving that extension letter, you will
see your certifications populate in your claim balance change.
Now, if you filed a new claim, were boarded a new claim and
were able to certify on your new claim, those new certifications
are going to be stuck in pending for up to three weeks.
During this point in time you were under U ISD review, during
which the Edd sends out your information to a third party
company called Thompson Reuters.
Thompson Reuters performs additional fraud checks to your
claim, and your pending payments will not move to paid until
they have completed this additional fraud check.
If this initial review period puts you in pending for longer
than three weeks, then I would call into customer service.
Next.
If you were awarded a new claim, your pending certifications
on your old expired claim in most cases will not be migrated
automatically to your new claim.
Those old pending certifications will need to be requested
through Customer Service to be migrated over to your new
claim. You can also attempt to backdate your new claim on
Ask Edd in hopes that that might save you a call into customer
service. Lastly, on a new claim, you may receive in the mail
an automated notice letting you know of a new customer account
number and notifying you to register a new account with Edd.
In the fine print.
On this notice, it States that if you already have an existing
account to disregard this notice, your Edd customer account
number will always remain the same.
So if you already have one and you already have an account
established, you will not need to set up a new one.
In most cases, if you try to set up the new customer account
number that has been sent to you, it will be rejected by
the system.
Next, Let's talk about the work search requirement changes.
Last Thursday, the Edd issued a statement in their press
release that the work search requirements are no longer waived
effective July 11 starting on July 11th.
Edd claimants are required to search for work in one of the
approved methods listed by the Edd.
His work search requirements that you must perform are going
to be dependent on your type of claim, whether you are PUA
or UI.
Next, Let's talk about Cal jobs.
In last week's press release, the Edd stated that Pua climates
are not required to list their resume.
All Cal jobs for UI, PEUC, and Fed Ed.
The cow jobs requirement was never waived.
The work search requirement was waived.
However, the cow jobs requirement was never mentioned in
the eligibility waiver.
Now, the EDD's Job Seekers page does state that new claims
that are started on July 11th and onward are required to
upload their resume to Cal jobs because cal jobs was never
listed as being waived anywhere on the EDD's language, all UI
PEUC and FedEx Clements should make sure that they are uploading
their resume to Cal jobs.
Next, Let's talk about those of you who are reaching a zero
dollar balance and are listed as maximum benefits paid.
Pua claimants are not required to file a new claim and their
balance will take them all the way up until claim week ending
September four th, at which point in time the program expires.
But if you are a UI, PEUC, or Fed Ed, your balance will get
all the way down to zero and you might not know what to expect.
Next, the Edd should award the next phase of the PEUC extension
to you automatically as long as you are within your benefit
year or if your benefit year expires.
You did not work within the last 18 months.
If you're within your benefit year or you did not work within
the last 18 months, the Edd should award the next phase of
the PEUC extension automatically.
If your benefit your ends and you did work within the last
18 months, then you're required to file a new claim.
But for those who are within their benefit year who did not
work within the last 18 months, the Edd should award the
next phase of the extension to your claim automatically.
The PEUC extension comes in three different phases.
The first phase is called PEUC and it is 13 weeks long.
The second phase is called PEUC Tier two, and it is also known
as PEUX.
That phase of the extension is 11 weeks long.
Third phase of the PEUC extension is called PEUC Tier two,
Augmentation or also known as PEUY, and it is up to 29 weeks
long. All phases of the PEUC extension must go all the way
down to a zero dollar balance before the next phase kicks
in. And they can be collected up until claim week ending
September fourth.
Now you must zero out your balance all the way down to zero
before the next phase of the extension is awarded.
Now, if you're waiting at a zero dollar balance for any longer
than two weeks, contact Customer Service.
The Edd should do this automatically, but Unfortunately they
have been inconsistent with awarding the extensions in a
timely manner.
So if you are waiting any longer than two weeks, call into
customer service.
Next, Let's talk about the end of the federal level provisions
for unemployment from the stimulus bill.
Claim week ending September four th is the last week that
you will be able to collect PEUC, Pua and the 300 dollars
boost. These programs were created by the stimulus bills
and they are set to expire September sixth.
Because California's unemployment week ends claim week ending
September fourth, these programs cannot be collected after
September fourth.
For those with remaining balances at the end of September
fourth, they will not be able to collect that remaining
balance. If you are a UI based claim, you were a traditional
employee and you are collecting UI or a PEUC.
You may be eligible to collect a Fed Ed extension following
September fourth.
As long as you have not collected a Fed Ed extension on your
claim, you qualify for Fed Ed and the Fed Ed program is activated.
Fed Ed is activated when the state's insured unemployment
rate equals or exceeds 5% and is at least 120% higher than
the average unemployment rate for the same period in the
two previous years.
Fed Ed is also activated when the States ensure sure unemployment
rate is 6% or more.
These States unemployment rate for last month was 7%.
As such, the Fed Ed program continues to be active.
Next, Let's talk about those of you who are stuck in pending.
I want to refer you over to my most recent pending video
where I go into the pending issues more in depth and walk
you through a flow chart to help to identify why your claim
could be stuck in pending.
If you are certifying on a brand new claim, your claim is
going to be pending for the first up to three weeks.
While your claim is under review, there's nothing to do but
wait in that scenario.
If you're waiting for longer than three weeks, then call
into customer service.
If you are required to send any sort of documentation such
as income documentation, ID, verification, etc, then you
are going to be pending until the Add has received, processed,
and applied that documentation to your claim.
Next, if your benefit year has expired and you did work within
the last 18 months, you're required to file a new claim and
your certifications will be stuck in pending until you do
so. For all other reasons for pending payments, Unfortunately,
you're going to need to call into customer service in many
cases, a stop payment alert may have been applied to your
claim from EDD's internal computer system.
This is tripped up based on a variety of different factors
that make Edd withhold your payments until it is cleared.
This can include how you certify more information that needs
to be gathered, a phone interview that is required, etc.
So if you are stuck in pending for any other reason may make
sure that you contact Edd.
Now, many who are stuck in pending are required to undergo
a phone interview.
The phone interviews have been an extremely large problem
because claimants are waiting an extreme amount of time to
have their phone interviews scheduled.
These are taking anywhere between two weeks and 13 weeks
to be scheduled.
Unfortunately, the majority of my subscribers are reporting
an average between 6 weeks and 12 weeks.
The California Assembly members have been extremely helpful
with Edd claimants and getting their issues resolved.
Unfortunately, they don't seem to be able to get your phone
interview scheduled any faster.
However, if you're waiting longer than two weeks to have
your phone interview scheduled, I do still recommend that
you reach out and notify them of the issue.
This not only brings attention to the problem, but if there
is some possibility that they're able to help push things
through more quickly, then they will know of the issue.
I want to remind you guys to prepare for 2,021 income taxes.
Unemployment benefits in the state of California are taxed
on the federal level, but not the state level.
All forms of your unemployment benefits, Pua, PEC, Fed, Ed,
UI, and the 300 dollars boost are taxable on the federal
level. Now, many of you may be selecting the box on your
certifications to include federal income tax withholding
which means that 10% of your unemployment benefits are paid
out to federal income taxes for you.
It's very important to understand that the State of California
is pulling out 10% from your unemployment benefits, but not
the 300 dollars boost.
So I want to make sure that all of you understand to be setting
aside 10% from the 300 dollars boost for federal income taxes.
In Tax Year 2020, we have the first 10,200 dollars worth
of unemployment benefits untaxed on the federal level, but
in Tax Year 2021 we do not have any current tax forgiveness.
There could be tax forgiveness proposed for Tax Year 2021
and passed in the future, but at this point in time, it is
best to make sure that you're setting aside that additional
10% to make sure that you're prepared for taxes.
Next, Let's talk about the MEUC boost.
If you're a mixed earner, someone who had both self employment
income and W2 income prior to being unemployed and you
were classified based on your W2 income only.
If you receive 5,000 dollars or more worth of self employment
income and it was disregarded with your unemployment application
because you were classified as UI, you may be eligible to
receive the MEUC boost, which is a 100 dollars additional
bonus per week.
Now this program is created by the stimulus bill and is optional
for States to utilize.
The Edd did state back in January that they would opt into
this program, However, Unfortunately, they have provided
no additional details.
Now, this program is still not up and running, and I have
been trying for a significant amount of time to get the EDD's
Media Department to give me some sort of update on this.
Unfortunately, their only response to me was that they had
no update to provide.
They also let me know that some of my questions would be
addressed in this week's press release.
The same is true for the overpayment waiver.
The overpayment waiver is something that is optional for
the States to choose to implement.
The Department of Waiver released their guidance on this
over a month ago, which released several different options
that States could utilize for implementing overpayment waivers
and blanket waiver.
Add has not released any additional details on an overpayment
waiver. Now, for the last month, I have been and trying to
get answers from the EDD's Media Department regarding the
MEC boost and the overpayment waiver.
Unfortunately, the only responses that I have received have
been to inform me that there are no additional details.
This week.
When I sent over a list of several different questions, they
did vaguely let me know that some of my questions will receive
more information in this week's press release.
Contacting Customer service continues to be an extreme struggle
for the majority of you.
The EDD's customer service phone lines continue to be an
extreme problem.
Not only is it difficult to get through to a hold line, but
once you are on a hold line, many of you are experiencing
dropped calls that you can try utilizing the 1-3-4 phone
trick. The video for this is linked down below.
You're going to call 1-833-978-2511 right when the announcer
States Select from the following, you're going to type in
1-3-4 all together right away.
Now, this phone trick is still working for many of my subscribers
and helping them to get through much faster.
This is not going to work on the first try.
You're going to have to attempt this many different tries,
but it still has about a 50% success, right?
If you view the most recent video comment next, you can view
my 25 phone numbers to contact the Edd.
This features specific Department phone numbers, such as
the ID Department or the Tech Services Phone Department.
It also features several different Edd branch phone numbers.
You do not need to live in the specific city of the branch
in order to call the branch and get help, so I recommend
trying to call all of those numbers as well.
Next, if you want to utilize a third party service to pay
to dial through to Edd until it reaches a hold line and call
you back.
I recommend using Claimer.
I have several videos on Claimer one where I test the service,
and you can watch how it works in the second video, delved
into your concerns about the company.
If it is safe, if it is, and the second delts into your concerns
about the company if it's safe, if it is jamming the phone
lines and many other concerns.
So I recommend watching those videos and utilizing the service.
If you find that it's a fit for you, Claimer will get you
through to a hold line, and it does protect you from dropped
calls. So if your call is dropped while you're waiting on
hold for a Tier two specialist, then it will call you back
with another call.
And Lastly, I want to make sure that you guys understand
to contact your Assembly members.
If you cannot get through to the Edd or if you're not receiving
the help that you need in order to fix your claim and get
paid, contact your Assembly members.
They've been extremely helpful for many claimants, and many
of my subscribers are reporting back to me that they have
had their issues fixed through the help of an Assembly member.
The link on how to locate and contact your Assembly member
is in the video description down below.
Okay, guys, I hope that was helpful.
Please click Like Subscribe and leave me a comment.