EDD can pay you while you attend school

Los Angeles- January 30, 2019

COMMENTARY

The California employment development department (known as “EDD”) has a neat program that enables you to attend school while collecting your unemployment benefits. It does take a little coordination.

EDD is a government agency, and as with most government agencies, they will advertise on the internet what they offer, but never have a disclaimer as to how they think they can bend the rules. It is called acting in an “arbitrary, capricious, and unjust manner.”

Basically this is how it works: You start collecting unemployment. Within a few weeks, you think about looking into attending school. You find a few schools that will help you get government funding to attend the school 100% paid at no cost to you. But you need your unemployment award in order to pay your bills. So you report this to EDD, and they can approve your school (they have a list of pre-approved schools and training) so that the benefit is you will not have to look for work while you are attending school.

On paper, this is how it works

EDD has various requirements to get started. You can see their various sites online if you like reading through lots of regulations. I will give you some page names to search, not “links” because sometimes links are changed. So you will want to check out “How to Report School or Training – EDD”; “Qualifying for a Training Extension (TE)”, etc. You must follow certain deadlines because EDD is too big a government agency to send you reminders, so you must read the rules before and when you get unemployment benefits. So basically you must attend some type of job fair or workshop or report the training to EDD before receiving 16 EDD payments. So it is best that you coordinate whether you want to go to school or continue to look for work. Once you start the school, EDD may approve your school training and you will no longer need to report a job search. This is where it gets tricky. EDD has a regulation that says you must either report your school to EDD or “inquire” about training before a certain deadline. My research showed that the unemployment insurance code does not use the word “inquire” so EDD proceeds without authority in that regard. I have not won that argument yet though. The tricky one is under the page “Qualifying for a Training Extension (TE)”. It tells you how you can “inquire” about training, even though this “inquiry” is not authorized under State Unemployment Insurance Code. That page information is important because it enables EDD to not only approve your training but also to grant you an EDD payments extension that will last through your schooling even if you have a zero balance on your claim. So you will continue to get paid benefits while attending school. Most times the program seems to work.

Below is one of my arguments with EDD about the “inquiry” provision of their regulations. Good luck because getting any kind of job training is always a plus. 

From: (name and email redacted)

Subject: To EDD re Extended Training Benefits

Date: January 26, 2019 at 3:37 PM

To: WOTCsupport@edd.ca.gov

via WOTCsupport@edd.ca.gov (and US Mail)

“To EDD Patrick Henning, Gail Overhouse, Gregory Riggs, Lisa Wheeler, Greg Williams, Sandra Clifton: My previous benefit year started 1/14/2018. I attended WOIA training at West Los Angeles College January 17, 2018 thru March 8, 2018 for Basic Comp TIA. I thus started training before the claim had expired. and before 16 payments had been reached. CUIC section 1271(a) does not state “inquire about CTB”. I should not have been denied a training extension. EDD acted in an arbitrary, capricious, and unjust manner. The EDD paragraph 4 recall of CUIC section 1271A does not match the CUIC section 1271(a). EDD uses the phrase “inquire about CTB” but the CUIC section 1271(a) does not mention those words, therefore EDD has no authority to deny extended benefits on those grounds. On further inspection as detailed herein, I did inquire TIMELY about CTB thru my registration with CalJobs and other evidence listed. Nevertheless, under EDD website , under “How to make a Timely Training Extension Inquiry”, how to let the EDD know you are interested in CTB, it states I should submit a question thru UI Online under the category School or Training. Thus I submit this question of how does EDD proceed outside the authority of CUIC section 1271(a) as stated above. EDD provides “If the claimant fails to make a timely inquiry or report the start date of training with UI, and the claimant is attending WIA, ETP, TAA, CalWORKs or a Department of Rehabilitation authorized training, the TE eligibility condition can still be met if the claimant made a timely inquiry or application for service with the respective entity. The inquiry application date must be verified with the authorized program representative and have occurred prior to the receipt of the 16th week of UI benefits or before the last payment is received on a claim of less than 16 weeks”; in my case, this entitlement was ignored.EDD has acted in an arbitrary, unjust, and capricious manner. The EDD employee responding should be fired.”

To EDD Patrick Henning, Gail Overhouse, Gregory Riggs, Lisa Wheeler, Greg Williams, Sandra Clifton