Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s beleaguered unemployment benefits system remains mired in dysfunction, leaving many jobless workers in dire straits after their efforts to receive financial assistance have been stymied by jammed phone lines, overwhelmed staff and failed technology.

Millions of out-of-work Californians are still waiting for money they desperately need to feed and clothe their families and avoid ending up on the streets. Payments have instead gone to fulfill fraudulent claims filed in the names of prison inmates, infants, retirees and people living in other states, with a deluge of applications for benefits coming from criminal gangs operating in Russia, China and Nigeria.

Adding insult to injury, state officials acknowledged this week that more than $11 billion in benefits were paid on fraudulent claims during the last year — some 10% of all money paid — and another $19 billion is under investigation for potential fraud.

Now, two new state audits have confirmed what many lawmakers feared was true: The state Employment Development Department failed to prepare for the unprecedented flood of unemployment claims during the pandemic, neglected to fix problems officials identified more than a decade ago during the Great Recession and all but ignored warnings of widespread fraud for months.

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