Published: October 16, 2026
When you need disability or Paid Family Leave benefits, you need help you can count on. We know this support is especially important when you’re dealing with an illness, injury, new baby or family member who needs care. And we’re continuing to build on that progress.
Starting January 1, 2025, Senate Bill 951 increased disability and Paid Family Leave benefit amounts. Many workers can now receive up to 90% of their regular pay, while other workers can receive up to 70%. With more support available, more Californians are turning to these programs when they take time off work to recover from an illness or injury or care for a loved one.
To meet this growing need, EDD is hiring more staff, improving our technology and services, and finding new ways to make it easier for you to connect with us and to get the information and help you need.
Hiring More Staff to Help Customers
Good service starts with people. That’s why we are hiring more than 220 staff to join our Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave teams across the state. So far, we have filled 150 of those positions and are continuing to recruit for the remaining roles. These are complex programs, and new staff go through extensive onboarding and training before they are ready to serve customers. Building a larger, well-trained team takes time. We’re focused on doing it right, so our staff have the knowledge and tools they need to help customers and keep up with growing demand.
Team member helping a customer at EDD’s Oakland office
Adding more staff will help us serve more customers as more Californians turn to these benefits. It’s a long-term investment in our ability to provide the timely, reliable service customers need.
Making Office Visits Easier
Customers can use self-service options through myEDD and our chatbot to check claim status, find information and complete certain tasks online anytime. But we know self-service isn’t right for every situation. When you still need help from a person, we want it to be easier to visit your local disability or Paid Family Leave office. That’s where our new Qmatic queue management system assists customers to secure an opening for assistance either through scanning a QR code or collecting a paper ticket from a kiosk.
Kiosk in EDD’s Oakland office
Now, when you arrive you can:
- Scan a QR code with your phone
- Access a paper ticket at the kiosk
- Answer a few quick questions
- Join a virtual or physical line
- Monitor your place in line via text message
After providing general information about your reasons for a visit, you can then sit and relax instead of standing in line until your number is called.
You can wait in your car or in a designated area until receiving a text/SMS message letting you know your turn is coming up and you should make your way to the office. It’s one simple way we’re working to give you more control over your time.
Stay Updated with Our Improvements
These are just a few ways EDD is making services simpler, more accessible, and easier to use. Our most recent improvements include:
- Easier Online Identity Verification: Customers applying for unemployment, disability or Paid Family Leave can now verify their identity directly through Socure in myEDD. More than 80% complete verification within seconds, helping them move through the process faster while protecting their personal information.
- Simplifying Our Unemployment Certification Questions: We’ve made it easier to certify for unemployment benefits online with new simplified questions and guidance based on customer feedback and research.
- More Secure Employer Accounts: Employers now have added login security through multi-factor authentication for Employer Services Online. The added protection helps keep business and employee information safe from unauthorized access.
We’re continuing to collect customer feedback to help guide our modernization efforts. Want to stay up to date on our new services, improvements and helpful resources? Sign up for our Benefiting Californians newsletter to stay in the know of all things EDD!
