HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE

CALIFORNIA'S ANTI-WORKER EDD

Think you have a social safety net if you lose your job in California? It's not necessarily so. Even if you should easily qualify for unemployment benefits, it becomes an onerous process to get the benefits. California's Employment Development Department in recent years has become decidedly anti-worker.

For instance, say that you begin some kind of job training. That can disqualify you for unemployment benefits. If you sign on the wrong line and say that you are starting training, you have to stay home for an "interview" by someone from EDD.

Even initial filing can be be a miserable process. If you try to call on the phone, you will most likely get a recorded message stating that EDD is too busy. They then summarily hang up on you.

If you weren't laid off, but lost your job for some other reason, you have to stay home for an "interview." They can find a myriad number of reasons to "interview" you these days, it seems, to try to disqualify you from unemployment.

It's not that unemployment is much of a safety net anyway. Most people would have a very difficult time surviving on unemployment for very long. I know the right-wing argument is that people have to get "incentives" to work, but what if there are no jobs?

Another thing that really irritates me about EDD is that they plaster your full Social Security number on forms. In an age where identity theft is a major problem, and Social Security numbers are a major part of identity theft, that seems highly irresponsible.

It's also mystifying that in age of the Internet that you can't file "continuing claim" forms online. You have to deal with a paper form (assuming they aren't holding that for an "interview.") You can file taxes online, pay bills online, renew your car registration online, so why can't you file continuing unemployment claims online?

Once we get rid of our current incompetent Republican governor I hope that EDD will undergo some reforms to make it sensitive to the needs of the unemployed.