California disability and family leave benefits and ID.me – ID.me Help Center

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) works with ID.me to create a highly secure identity verification process that ensures you—and only you—can access your benefits. ID.me’s role in this partnership is only for identity verification. ID.me does not approve claims or distribute payments to claimants.

This article explains how to verify your identity as a disability claimant.

Note: If you’re a physician or practitioner, visit Verifying as a California physician or practitioner.

About the verification process

ID.me’s next-generation identity platform meets the highest federal standards for online identity proofing and authentication. During the verification process, you will be asked to share your information.

In addition, ID.me has built rigorous security and privacy requirements into our technology. Learn more about ID.me’s Privacy Bill of Rights and how your information is protected.

Before you verify

To complete the verification process you’ll need:

A mobile phone with a camera or a computer with a webcam
An email address you have access to
Two or more identification documents (such as a driver's license, passport, passport card, or state ID)
Your Social Security number

Tip: To make sure your documents get approved, follow our best practices for uploading identity documents from a smartphone or computer and webcam.

How to verify

Follow the steps below to verify your identity.

Visit the EDD website and select Benefits Login in the upper-right corner.
Log in to myEDD or select Create Account to register.
From myEDD Home, select SDI Online.
From SDI Online, select Register as a Claimant.
When you reach the Verify Your Identity page, select Verify with ID.me.
Follow the instructions to verify your identity on the ID.me website.
Important: On the Authorize California EDD page you must select Allow to share your information with the EDD.

Tip: You can verify in over 240 languages over a video call. When you start your verification, select Verify over a video call, then tell the Video Chat Agent the language you’d like to verify with. They will bring in a third-party interpreter to translate during the video call.

After you verify

If you choose self-service

Return to SDI Online and complete your disability or family leave application.

If you choose a video chat agent

After your video chat, if you have been logged out of UI Online:

Follow the “How to verify” steps 1-5 above and sign in with your ID.me account.
On the Authorize California EDD page select Allow to share your information with the EDD.
Return to SDI Online and complete your disability or family leave application.

Manage your ID.me account

After creating your ID.me account, you can also manage your account settings.

Account settings

Change or add email addresses to your account.
Reset your password.
If you can’t access your ID.me account email address, need to reset your password, or see an error message, visit I can't sign in to my account.

Multi-factor authentication

Learn more about Getting started with multi-factor authentication.
If you’re having trouble, visit Troubleshooting multi-factor authentication.

Who to contact for support

Who you need to contact for help depends on if you completed the verification process or not.

ID.me

ID.me can help if you have trouble with the identity verification process. Common issues include:

Account sign-in issues
Uploading identification documents or selfies
Fixing documents that were rejected

California EDD

The partner you verify for can best help with questions and next steps after you complete the verification process. For example, you may have questions about benefits or services you verified for. Before contacting the partner:

Confirm your verification was successful
Confirm you shared your information with the partner
Review our best practices and sample messages of how to request help from ID.me partners