I thought mailing the claim was the hard part
When I filed my Paid Family Leave claim, I mailed in the paperwork and waited. I assumed the next step would be an update, a letter, or some sign that my claim was moving. Instead, I heard nothing.
Eventually, I realized that waiting was not going to tell me what had happened. I needed to call EDD.
Getting through took five days. I called over and over, working my way through the phone system only to be told that no one was available. When I finally reached someone, I learned that EDD had never received my claim.
One missing claim became one missing fax after another
The person I reached gave me a fax number so I could resubmit the claim. It was a number I would never have found if I had not managed to get through by phone. I faxed everything and waited again.
Again, there was no update. So I started calling again. It took another five days to reach someone.
This time, I was doing it with a screaming three-week-old baby. Every new parent knows how precious the quiet gaps between feeds can be. They are the moments when you might sleep, eat, shower, or simply sit still for a minute. I spent those gaps redialing EDD instead.
When I finally got through, I was told that my documents had been lost. I was given another fax number and sent the paperwork again.
A week later, I called to make sure the documents had arrived. The answer was no.
The call that finally changed things
By then, EDD could see how many times I had called. Maybe the person on the other end understood how exhausted I was. Maybe they simply took pity on me. Whatever the reason, they processed my claim on the phone.
I was relieved, but I could not stop thinking about everything it had taken to reach that point: two rounds of five-day calling attempts, multiple fax numbers, documents sent and lost, and hours that should have belonged to my newborn and my own recovery.
The hardest part was not filling out the paperwork. It was getting a person on the line long enough to find out what had gone wrong.
Why I built calledd
I kept thinking that new parents should not have to spend their limited time and energy repeatedly navigating the opening phone system. People call EDD because something important in their lives already needs attention. They may be caring for a newborn, recovering from birth, supporting a family member, or trying to keep their household afloat while a claim is unresolved.
That is why I built calledd. It handles the repetitive work of calling and navigating the opening Paid Family Leave phone prompts. When it reaches EDD’s claimant-intake point, it calls you so you can take over, follow EDD’s instructions, and provide your own information directly to EDD.
calledd cannot make EDD find a document, approve a claim, or guarantee that a representative will be available. What it can do is give people back some of the time and attention that repeated dialing takes away.
What I hope calledd gives back
I built calledd because I wanted a better answer than “keep calling.” I wanted parents to be able to feed their baby, close their eyes between feeds, or simply be present with their family without worrying that putting down the phone meant missing their chance to get help.
No one should have to choose between caring for a three-week-old and spending another day pressing the same digits into the same phone tree. If calledd can carry even a small part of that burden, then the experience that inspired it can become something useful for the next person.