About 1.13 million unemployed California workers are stuck in EDD payment limbo, including 889,000 workers that the state Employment Development Department says it can’t pay “at this time,” even if they have been out of work for months amid coronavirus-linked business shutdowns.

At a state legislative hearing last week, the EDD was blasted by lawmakers and members of the public for repeated failures in making payments to unemployed workers, who in many instances lost their jobs in business shutdowns ordered by state and local government agencies to combat the deadly bug.

The embattled state agency said it is aware of at least 1.13 million unpaid claims over the four months from March through July.

Those unpaid jobless claims break down this way: 889,000 unemployed California workers who “may be eligible with additional information” and another 239,000 whose claims are “pending EDD resolution.”

After the hearing, however, the EDD made it clear that the 889,000 workers need to provide more information to the state agency if they are going to get paid.

“We can’t approve these claims at this time,” EDD spokesperson Loree Levy said. “These claimants are basically ineligible unless they follow up on notices they’ve been given.”

Countless workers say they haven’t been paid since they lost their jobs in mid-March in the first wave of layoffs.

“Unfortunately all EDD can do is remind claimants where possible that action from them is needed,” Levy said.

Among the requirements: The EDD says workers must officially certify with the state agency that they have filed a claim for unemployment benefits and that without that formal certification, payments can’t be processed and issued.

Workers also need to prove they were paid wages, to verify their identities, and to ensure that their employers had the correct status for the employees.

Nancy Martinez, a San Francisco resident, lost her job in March through a coronavirus-linked layoff at a Bay Area restaurant. She applied for unemployment benefits on March 20. The only correspondence from the EDD — after four months — was a letter stating that the claim was being processed.

“I go on the EDD web site, and there’s no update, no information,” Martinez said Monday. “It’s been months. No benefits. No money. Nothing.”

Martinez’s husband also is out of work, she said.

“Because of EDD’s failures, our constituents are depleting their life savings, going into extreme debt, having trouble paying rent and putting food on the table,” state Assemblymember David Chiu, a Democrat who represents parts of San Francisco, said during the legislative hearing last week.

All told, about 7.01 million California workers have filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits during the roughly four-months that ended on July 25, U.S. Labor Department figures show.

Workers who have lost their jobs in California must navigate the EDD’s broken call center, which rarely responds to inbound telephone calls from applicants.

Unemployed people also must battle an EDD website whose foundation is a three-decade-old computer programming language called Cobol, a technology deemed primitive by today’s standards.

“The EDD is horrible,” Martinez said. “I have been sending them everything they ask for. I have no idea when I am going to receive any benefits from the EDD. This is scary.”