SAN DIEGO — Spring Valley resident Steven Gaston recently received some good news from the California Employment Development Department (EDD). He has been approved for disability benefits after waiting months for his claim to come through.
“My social security number got mixed around, and I don't know how that's possible,” Gaston said. “I've been waiting for so long. We're about to get kicked out of the house here.”
EDD has a massive backlog of unemployment claims because of the pandemic. But when it comes to disability claims, the agency said it processes 95% of claims within two weeks.
News 8 contacted Gaston's state senator, Brian Jones (R-Santee), and a staff member was able to jump start Gaston’s disability claim with EDD.
Last week, EDD started using a commercial identification program, called ID.me, to help speed up identity verification issues for unemployment claims. The EDD agency said it will start using ID.me for disability claims as well, though an implementation date has not been set.
Gaston said he recently was certified for $800 in disability benefits, but he still has not received his debit card in the mail. He has applied for 12 weeks of benefits, totaling about $4,800.
EDD is still working to clear a backlog of 1.3 million unemployment claims as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disability claims are not piling up as fast because, for the most part, those claims are unrelated to the pandemic.