Assembly members press EDD on paid family leave backlogs, constituent delays and response standards
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Summary
Members told EDD of constituent cases with multi-week payment delays and asked for firm standards; EDD said service-level goals are two weeks for PFL/DI and 21 days for UI, confirmed they track complex outstanding cases, and agreed to provide more data on paper versus online claims and WARN notices.
Assemblymembers pressed EDD staff during an informational Budget Subcommittee No. 5 hearing about persistent case delays in paid family leave (PFL) and constituent experiences needing legislative intervention.
Assemblymember Jessica Colosa and other members recounted constituent cases in which claimants waited weeks to receive payments, including one case that required the member’s office to secure about $13,000 in back payments and another where a claimant waited nearly two months to be certified. Colosa said her office opened nearly 200 cases in under two months, a threefold increase from 2025.
Amy Faulkner, EDD’s chief deputy director, acknowledged 2024 slowdowns tied to moving PFL into the SDIO online application and to seasonal patterns (holiday clustering), and said EDD had completed training and system fixes. "As of February, we’re processing 85% of all of our claims timely within two weeks of receipt," Faulkner said, while also noting complex cases sometimes require additional documents from claimants or medical providers that delay adjudication.
Service standards and channels: EDD told members the department’s baseline targets are approximately 14 days for initial DI and PFL payments and 21 days for UI (the federal standard). For live contact, EDD said self-service options (chatbot and live chat) provide immediate responses and that phone callbacks are scheduled and generally attempted the same day. EDD also said it tracks call dispositions, reasons for calls, and whether responses meet timeliness goals.
Paper vs. online claims: Committee members asked for a program-by-program breakdown of paper versus online claims. EDD provided the following figures during the hearing: disability claims ~60% online (40% paper), unemployment claims ~92% online (8% paper), and PFL ~83% online (17% paper). Members asked for follow-up data showing turnaround times by channel and for plans to transition paper filers without leaving vulnerable groups behind (seniors, limited English proficiency).
WARN notices and rapid response: EDD confirmed it tracks WARN notices and partners with local workforce boards and employers to provide on-site rapid-response services during mass layoffs. EDD committed to providing more granular WARN-industry data to members.
What the committee asked EDD to provide: Members requested EDD provide (1) detailed program-level turnaround-time data including channel (paper vs. online) and complex-case counts, (2) industry-level WARN trends, and (3) case-pattern analytics that explain why some claims move for legislative offices but not for unaided claimants. EDD agreed to follow up with the requested information and said recent UI system changes have reduced the need for manual processing for many claims.
The hearing closed with the chair scheduling a March 10 follow-up on EDD Next and paid family leave and with EDD offering to send the requested metrics to legislative offices.