The unemployment rate in California is back to where it was before the COVID-19 outbreak when it skyrocketed and drove millions of people to apply for unemployment insurance benefits.

The state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which handles claims, was strained under the weight of the numerous applications at that time.

Requirements For California Unemployment Benefits

The agency has now improved and taken numerous lessons from those challenging times. The government claims to be prepared in light of the massive layoffs occurring in the tech sector and worries that the economy may still slip into recession as a result of rising interest rates.

Here are the requirements set forth by the state in order to apply for unemployment benefits to tide you over until you find a new job, should you find yourself out of work. One can only hope that the optimists who are forecasting a soft landing and not a full-on contraction of the economy are correct.

You must satisfy the following requirements in order to be eligible for unemployment benefits in California:

• Have accrued sufficient earnings during the base period.
• Be totally or partially unemployed.
• Be without a job due to no fault of your own.
• Be physically able to work.
• Be available for work.
• Be prepared and willing to start working right away.

The EDD determines whether you have accrued sufficient wages to support a claim by using a base period, which is a defined 12-month period of time. Benefits are not available to anyone who hasn’t worked or made any money over the past 18 months.

When you are already receiving benefits, you will regularly need to certify that you are still eligible, but you will just need to provide the following evidence:

• Physically able to work.
• Available for work.
• Ready and willing to accept work immediately.=

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Who To Apply For CalWORKs?

You must complete a one-week unpaid waiting period before receiving unemployment benefits.

Additionally, The California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) offers short-term financial assistance as well as employment-focused programs to families with children whose income and assets fall below the USA’s maximum standards for their family size.

It also goes by the term Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which is how the federal government refers to the program that finances CalWORKs.

A California citizen must have a child under the age of 18 who has at least one parent who is either deceased, in prison, disabled, unemployed, or disabled in order to be eligible for the program.

Either the parent or caregiver of the child must be a citizen of the United States or a valid California resident.

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