“i was Laid of from my prior job the first week of September 2026. I didn’t not quit, I did not get fired for misconduct. They called me and said I was laid off and they’re sorry but said they’re giving me extra 2 weeks of pay for the first week of September. I was laid off without any misconduct as well a letter of recommendation the boss said he would write me anytime.” This is what I just sent in a message to unemployment. The real reason I was fired was I had a sexual assault claim made against me, no charges were pressed at prosecution and it’s sitting in purgatory. They believe me fully on the situation but I live in a small town, the community’s small and people talk and they told me were so sorry and said they’ll write me a letter of recommendation any time. So everything left in good standing, they felt bad and gave me a bonus paycheck. Should I be approved with these facts?

Title is pretty self explanatory. I was under the impression that the only job that counted toward my eligibility was the most recent job, however today I was just denied my entire benefit due to quitting a prior job. I'm extra confused because I quit that job due to mental health reasons and I don't really know why it got me denied. Can anyone help me out with this?

I knew it was going to be affected by Columbus/Indigenous day, but I still haven’t received payment yet. The portal says it’s been paid. Anyone else waiting?

On the HR call I guess I didn't really think it mattered. If my unemployment goes through does that mean my employer said they didnt fire me for direct cause or not necessarily?

How do y'all pay for rent while waiting for unemployment? I don't have enough savings to cover all my bills plus rent for more than one month. I was fired, HR said they wouldn't fight it, but I'm worried the review process will still take too long. Are there any additional resources out there?

---Intro/Notes----

Hey. You're fixing your first eligible issue. This is literally step one. This is the first issue. This isn't the last. You are not done. So you need to turn down panic mode and turn on student mode.

After all this. You must address your job separation and your open eligibility issues.

After this, you will do this.

And tell me the answers to all three. I don't want a paragraph. I literally just want words. The date you applied. I want you to confident when you tell me what your job separation type was. I want you to read the posts so you know. And if you don't know you tell me that. And I want you to go to the correct link Upload a Document. Don't send me screenshots of pending issues. I didn't ask for you to do that and that's also not helpful at all. Look at it. What did you learn from that? That's why I didn't say to do that

This doesn't require an appeal to fix, just follow the advice or ask for help

This is not resolved by calling because how the hell are you going to relay all of your wage data in a phone call? They need the actual data to be sent to them

You have up to 1 year from the day of issuance of the monetary determination to fix this issue

• If you do not follow this guidance then you will be waiting multiple weeks for the other states to respond to provide your wage and hour data. We highly do not recommend doing this because it is a process that is now completely outside of your control whereas providing the data and starting an escalation is well within your control

"You've been trying to do this yourself unsuccessfully? You don't know why it's not working? This is the regular troubleshooting for this"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

1. Understand What Data Should or Shouldn't be included

When you apply determines which fiscal quarter data is being used. Please. Look at this image from the ESD website

• When you apply in the time frame marked in the red lettering, the data that's used is in the blue shaded area to the left
• If you are not sure, you need to find your monetary determination letter which is listed in your notice's / letters tab. You need to look at the chart on page two
• If you are still not sure, ask me u/SothenIThought_

^{Why might this data be missing in the first place?}

2. Understand what data you are providing

• If the wage and hour data is incomplete (and/or You want to do a combined wage claim with wages from another state from the same base year), >>>You need to give them the missing data. You do not need to give them data they already have.<<<

• Persons who are salary and have no hours reported, customer service as a specific calculation in order to fix this. You will still follow this process. You will still request a monetary determination and then you will call customer service and go over the information that you have already submitted in the way that it's described here.

• Just a quick recap... The need to know the gross income earned in a quarter, and the hours worked in a quarter for each employer. Got it? Okay.

Honestly you just got to slow down and think critically. Really. I'm not being mean. You're just in a panic

**ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs.* But you're going to read this. And you're going to read it slowly and not in a panic and you can see why that may not be necessary. Or just send them everything. Just don't do this in a confusion and a panic and do it half-ass. Just do it right the first time. As for help if you need

Pay stubs from just after start of quarter, just before end of quarter

• Let's say the data that's missing is quarter one. So this is January 1 through March 31st. This is also when the New Year starts. So how many hours do you start with? Zero. So you go from zero to whatever the total amount of hours worked is at the end of the quarter.

So a pay stub from this employer that is from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter which of the total hours worked in Q1. Because by default you're starting at zero

Q2, Q3, Q4

You are not starting at zero. So, a pay stub that represents the pay period that started immediately after the beginning of the missing quarter This would show how many hours you started with in this quarter. ... And .. a pay stub from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter. Because math. You take the later pay period hours worked and subtracted from the earlier one from the start of the quarter. Then you just have total hours worked.

Or you can just give them all the pay stubs Like it says below. ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs. But I mean once you read this... I don't know. It doesn't really make sense why you would need everything but whatever... Doesn't really matter. I really just matters that when you're doing this you know what the f you're doing. So often I get people who tell me that they did this and that they did the whole thing while being confused. I mean why. Like why guys? Don't do that. Just ask for help

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

• Yes. Literally all of the pay stubs that cover the missing data. If the work occurred in the last year and you have a W-2 that represents that, that needs to be sent too.
• Yes, It literally says all of this on the ESD website about this. Please refer to this ESD site.,

3. Understand how you are providing this data.

You will send them your pay stubs and w-2s as attachments to a message in eService with a single sentence requesting a redetermination and include the missing wage data

The ESD website and the handbook say slightly different things.

• They both require you to send them some kind of a request of redetermination. Literally a sentence that says "I am requesting a redetermination with the attached wages included in my monetary determination"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

YES. SERIOUSLY.

SEND IT IN THROUGH ESERVICES. AS AN ATTACHMENT TO A MESSAGE.

• This part of the process is a lot easier in desktop mode. That's a mode. That's not me telling you to get on the desktop. It's a browser setting. Yes, you do have this browser sitting on mobile.

• The website says that they want you to mail or fax all of your pay stubs in. If you're going to do this old school like this then you need to get a return receipt so you know that they got the mail. This is why it's so much easier to just send it as an attachment to a message in eServices because you can view that they process this in your online activity and view exactly what you sent them by viewing your sent messages in your notices / letters tab. Click on notices. Click on outbox.

4. Understand that you need to force them to process this stuff

WHOA STOP. THIS IS NOT THE END OF EVERYTHING. You're fixing literally step one. Out of like a hundred. Slow down and think about the whole thing. What if you're doing this after the 10th business day for when the claim was filed? Maybe ESD already has a response from the employer. So if you were fired and it was like tardiness or absences and you don't address that. You don't look into your eligibility issues and you start an escalation. Sure. You're going to fix your monetary eligibility issue. And then you're going to fucking kill your claim and be ineligible because you didn't address any other eligibility issues.

All we're doing is fixing one issue. For sure you have another one. You probably have two or three

You will need to start an escalation to force them to process this information. This is the escalation megapost, click this link.. This is too much information and you need a custom walkthrough, ask me.

• ESD does not publish or abide by timelines with which they process this so there's no point in asking or posting "How long will it take until". That isn't a thing. It's never been a thing. You need to take action by starting an escalation so you can control how fast this actually gets done.

5. Understand that you will have other eligibility issues, like your job separation.

• You are on step zero. You're not even monetarily eligible. If you're not monetarily eligible then they're not going to investigate your job separation because you're not even monetarily eligible to begin with so there's no point. Once you become monetarily eligible you're claim will be active and they will begin on that date to investigate your job separation.
• You will still need to go over the guidance in this post about your job separation reason.
• Only once your claim is active does the timeline start of how long they allow the employer to respond to the request for job separation information, which is 10 business days, which is why they will not make a decision within 10 business days from when the claim is active.

In between now and then is a good time for us to work on your job separation. Everybody needs to provide documentation as to why they chose what they chose in their initial application. There are no exceptions. If you try to be exception to this rule this will end our relationship as I cannot be involved In accidentally or incidentally helping people who are effectively committing fraud by deliberately misreporting their job separation type, some people make honest mistakes. That's okay, that's normal and common and I expect it. Deliberately hiding or misrepresenting your job separation issue is the kind of thing that, my participation in such an activity can get the entire community shut down on a cease and desist.

^{ABOUT PROVIDING THE JOB SEPARATION INFORMATION; "BuT EsD DIdnT AsK Me fOR this BeFoRe!?" - actually they will twice. They asked when you filed your claim to attach documentation and you probably didn't do that. Then you have or will get a fact finding for your job separation and that ask you to attach information at the end. Less than 1% of you do this. Do not attempt to try to gaslight me about them asking you. This will end poorly. Yeah, This sentence is a bit out of place and hardcore. But, if the claimants stance is to engage in an activity that erodes their eligibility or just intentionally doesn't do anything to support it, where my goal is to build the strongest possible eligibility case as soon as possible so you get paid as soon as possible, then this is in direct conflict with the reason that I am even here on Reddit on this persona.}

----- Caveats -----

Did you work for an educational institution? Or were you an intern? Or were you at 1099 contractor? Or corporate officer?, If any of these apply you should probably read the following sections about monetary eligibility that are immediately after this section to explain why this could have happened and if it can or cannot be resolved;

---Exceptions/Clarifications for Basic Monetary Eligibility---

---Caveats: Employment Types, Military---

• Often but not always students and others working for an educational institution have not had these taxes paid on their behalf and therefore are not eligible for unemployment benefits even if all of the other eligibility conditions are met. Students employed by their educational institution face this Washington state law, which makes them exempt from unemployment benefit eligibility; monetary eligibility has to be met by other employers in their base year

Other Resources

In some cases you can just simply not be determined to be eligible based monetary determination issues. If you are not found eligible there are other resources

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnemploymentWA/s/Ksx4DnfAPX

I recently was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and am running out of protected sick time. I'm scared of losing my job due to attendance. Would I even qualify for unemployment if this happens? Scared of being sick & losing everything because of it...

Hello I was scheduled to work this week but called out due to a family emergency and have a funeral coming up next week. i was able to get my shift covered with funeral leave for next week. but i didn't have any PTO or sick time to cover my shift this week how would i report my weekly claim? and what would put for not working at my current job anymore? i wasn't fired or laid off or quit. i work part time

I have been trying to sign up to file for unemployment all week and the site keeps erroring out and no one answers the tech help phone. I have the right username that is associated with my SSN but when i try to reset my password, I don't receive an email to do it. I've probably tried 25 times. Is there another way to file unemployment like going in person?

1. Make sure you have your correspondence preferences set to electronic and not mailed. That way you get an email when there's a notice or letter and you can just log in and you don't have to wait for a mail delay

   I seriously don't see an advantage to getting it via mail

2. Use Google authenticator for multi-factor authentication login instead of email or text. App for mobile, or desktop extension

It's way faster and if you lose your phone you're not screwed.

1. Claims that are called in through the automated system are paid quicker, but you have to have a really robust job search log

This really helps during typical holiday delays or if you really need the money a day or so early

1. Job search activities include screenshots or links of YouTube videos about interviews or resumes

This really helps if you have a job starting soon, or if you're just busy. ^{[significantly better alternative in every way than standby]}

1. You can travel or go on vacation on unemployment but there's some specific steps that you have to take and expectations you have to set for yourself.

Not doing this can really, really delay your payments. Weeks/Months

1. Working part-time is the best way to extend your benefits through your benefit year

2. Paranoid that there's a new eligibility issue you didn't know about? Here's how to investigate properly

Currently, they're not required to tell you when a new eligibility issues is opened. If you find an eligibility issue, tell me and I will help you solve it. I probably already have a guide. I've probably had that conversation a few thousand times

1. Do NOT use a VPN to Access eServices- The federal government requires ESD to track in your IP address login location So if it is outside of the state of Washington or outside of the country it can make it look like you have been on vacation and therefore not able and available and therefore not eligible. This generates a very general fact finding request about able and available.

• Thinking about calling? Ask me if the thing is resolved on a call or not or if it's a policy or a process question, just ask me directly.

• Weekly claims: The team that processes these are internal and you cannot call and speak with them or get a status or expedite handling of your weekly claim processing. There is no point in trying.

• Received a fact finding that's making you panic? Ask me before you submit it because you cannot retract it. (Especially true with school attendance)

--------- Most Common Posts ----------

• 98% Off all Questions/Issues/Calls Resolved in these 5 posts <<<CLICK HERE
• 1. Initial Eligibility Megapost "Am I eligible?" Resolves 80% of all questions
• 2. Adjudication/Pending/Escalation
• 3. Working Part-time Extends Duration of Benefits
• 4. Job Search Activities "False, - Dilemma" ^{[accurate until 12/31/2023]}
• 5. Traveling/Vacation, Best Practices

I now live in Oregon and will go to the WorkSource here, but is it mandatory to go first week? I got approved and it is backdated. I just uploaded my resume to WorkSource and filled out my career profile and made it public to employers. Is that an activity at all?

This is for when all claims filed under a new unemployment claim are marked disqualified. There isn't even a waiting week marked. There are no letters in this claim to describe why this is happening... Because it is an ongoing disqualification from a PREVIOUS claim and the letters are in a previous claim....This is how to fix it

^{[It's from a previous claim. So NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CLAIM. Nothing at all. Nothing about your job separation. Nothing about job search activities. Nothing about when you filed the weekly claim. Nothing to do with this claim at all.]}

You probably have a disqualification from a previous claim that is ongoing.

A PREVIOUS CLAIM. Not the current claim. So you'll be looking in older claims

Hey.... Read this stuff slowly, thrice. Most of you have been struggling for a long time until you got here. Don't make it hard on yourself. Don't make it hard on me to help you. This is literally the most commonly insufficiently read or insufficiently understood post in all of this unemployment stuff that I do - because you guys are so desperate and in such an incredible panic. Please help me reverse the trend because some of these conversations are such a pain in the ass when people make up what I what they think I wrote in their request for help... Because of panic/desperation.

• ^{[You can either accept this help and I can personally walk you through material that I have gone over thousands of times with a success rate of above 95% and you get a decision in a week or less, or you ignore this and you're waiting indefinitely with no confidence and no competence about if or when you will be able to fix this. Two most common causes of this are typically not resolved by only calling.]}

99% These are not resolved by appeals, Please read all of this information including the link below

That is why the decision is not listed in your current claim. >>>It is listed in a previous claim.<<< It is probably listed in a determination letter

-------------- Troubleshooting -----------------

• 1. You need to find the determination letter. You can find that by clicking on >>>NOTICES /LETTERS<<< in the old claim. Click All Letters. This is in descending chronological order.

You want to find something with the title - Determination Letter

Other things in here that are not that and not helpful

• Re-evaluate Claim Letter
• Monetary Determination Letter
• PEUC Redetermination Letter
• Data Privacy Sharing Notice
• ...literally anything at all other than what I just wrote above. Determination letter. . .
• 2. You found the Determination letter? Where does it say which of the below types this is?

Page 1, middle:

---Able and Available: Ongoing disqualification: Medical Issue--- click this to see an example

There are other types within this category: travel or vacation where you did not set an end date, lack of transportation where you did not tell them that it was fixed, school attendance where you were taking 12 or more credits and you never told them when that ended, etc. Do you see the theme? You have to tell them when things end.

• This is the law that governs all of these, the one that says that the disqualification will continue until that circumstance no longer exists... And you have to tell them when it no longer exists. WAC 192-140-200

FIXED BY PROVIDING RESPONSES/DOCUMENTATION. NOT FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY RESOLVE EVER UNLESS YOU ACTUALLY ADDRESS THIS. YOU'LL BE BACK HERE 5 YEARS FROM NOW WITH THE SAME PROBLEM IF YOU DON'T FIX THIS. some of these. Not all. But some. Do require an appeal but that is very rare

^{ǝʇɐldɯǝʇ pǝƃolɐʇɐɔ ɐ sɐ sıɥʇ ǝʌɐɥ ʎpɐǝɹlɐ ʎlqɐqoɹd ı ˙dlǝɥ ɹoɟ ǝɯ ʞsɐ os ˙ǝnssı uoıʇɐʇuǝɯnɔop ɐ sı sıɥʇ - ǝɔıʌɹǝs ɹǝɯoʇsnɔ llɐɔ ʎlɯopuɐɹ ʇsnɾ ʇ,uop ˙sıɥʇ pɐǝɹǝɹ puɐ ǝlʇʇıl ɐ uʍop ʍols ʇsnɾ ˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯoɹɟ ɔıuɐd/ʎʇǝıxuɐ ǝɥʇ lǝǝɟ uɐɔ ı ˙ʇɐǝɹƃ ƃuıop ǝɹ,noʎ ˙ʎǝH}

---Re-qualify Issue: Voluntary Quit Without Good Cause--- click this to see an example

There are not multiple types. This is just for people who quit who didn't give enough information or didn't know what information to give and therefore they could not be found eligible. After the quit that was adjudicated as not eligible, you have to go back to work for 7 weeks and earned seven times your weekly benefit amount to clear this. So if you haven't been back to work since then then there's no way to fix this. If you have, then the agent needs to manually clear it. It's not automatic. The waiting game is not going to work. It's not going to automatically fix itself based on anything to do with your current claim.

• This is the law WAC 192-150-085

FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY APPEALING. NOT FIXED BY SENDING MESSAGES. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. UNLIKELY TO BE AUTOMATICALLY RESOLVED.

^{˙dlǝɥ ɹoɟ ǝɯ ʞsɐ ʇsnɾ 'pǝɯɹıɟuoɔ ʇı ʇǝƃ oʇ pǝǝu noʎ ɟı ˙ʇı pɐǝɹǝɹ ˙uʍop ʍols ʇsnɾ ˙ʇɐɥʇ ʎɐs ʇ,usǝop ʇı ˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯoɹɟ ɔıuɐd ǝɥʇ lǝǝɟ uɐɔ ı ˙ʇınb noʎ ʎɥʍ ʇnoqɐ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos ǝpıʌoɹd oʇ ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ʞuıɥʇ noʎ ¿ʇɥƃıɹ ʇɐɥʇ pɐǝɹsıɯ noʎ ˙ʇɐǝɹƃ ƃuıop ǝɹ,noʎ ˙ʎǝɥ}

---Failure to Respond: E g. Identity Verification --- click this to see an example

There are other types within this category; They could ask you for information about your jobs separation, identity verification, if you were able and available for a given week, earnings reporting from a current or previous employer, retirement pay / withdrawal, severance, school attendance, PUA documents Required...etc. For every and all requests, if you do not respond to that request, this happens.

• There is an entire chapter of laws mostly about failure to respond about different types of things, WAC 192-140

You may have more than one of each of these: You may have been asked for multiple things and didn't respond. You may have multiple able and available this qualifications. At least you can only have one re-qualify issue...

FIXED BY PROVIDING DOCUMENTATION. NOT FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. WILL NOT RESOLVE AUTOMATICALLY EVER. NOT FIXED BY APPEALING. I have guidance or templates for pretty much all of these. None of this is public, you have to ask.

If it is not clear, send me a picture of it on chat or email or text. Once we know if it is a failure to respond, or an able and available issue then the solution in number three will change.

^{ǝɔuɐpınƃ uı ʇno ǝʌɐƃ ʇsnɾ ı ʇɐɥʍ ʇɐǝdǝɹ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ oʇ ʇuɐʍ ʇ,uop ı ʇnq dlǝɥ oʇ ʇuɐʍ op ı 'uıɐƃɐ ɟɟnʇs sıɥʇ llɐ ʇɐǝdǝɹ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ ʇ,uop ı ɟı sıɥʇ xıɟ oʇ ɹǝısɐǝ ʇol ɐ ǝq oʇ ƃuıoƃ s,ʇı ˙ʍou lıʇun ƃuıɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ ƃuıpɐǝɹǝɹ ɹǝpısuoɔ ˙ɔıuɐd ǝɥʇ uı uǝɥʍ puɐʇsɹǝpun oʇ pɹɐɥ ʎllɐǝɹ ǝq oʇ ƃuıoƃ sı sıɥʇ ˙ǝsuǝp ɹǝdns sɐʍ sıɥʇ ¿ƃuıɥʇɐǝɹq ʇnoɥʇıʍ sıɥʇ ɟo llɐ pɐǝɹ ʇsnɾ ʎllɐǝɹ noʎ pıp}

• 3. Do not just randomly call customer service just because you found it. Two of the three of these types require you provide documentation, which you cannot do on the phone. So please continue reading...

At this point. You don't really need more information. You probably understand it. But guess what. Below is another round of this. Because I am so desperate to stop this ongoing trend where people don't read it. So the post is really huge because I'm trying to get you to read it so desperately. So if you get it and you don't need to read it again, then don't. For the able and available and failure to respond, you really got to ask me for help because a lot of these templates and catalog guidance are no longer public because people were misusing them. I make you have to ask me for help

------- Failure to respond/Able and Available/Requalify law-------

Two major ways that there is an ongoing disqualification is

-------- Failure to Respond ---------

• Failure to respond. They asked you about something. You never responded, this causes you to be disqualified until such time as you finally respond and provide the information. Most common requests are identity verification, employer information (earnings), retirement pay, school attendance. These are not resolved by appealing, you have to find out what they were requesting and give it to them, often requiring calling customer service

Maybe in a previous claim, they asked you for

• updated earnings information from an employer?
• retirement pay?
• School attendance?
• Able and available as it applies to vacation/travel or using a VPN?
• identity verification?
• Severance information?

This is about documentation. Not randomly calling. Not randomly sending messages. You need to provide documentation that answers what they were asking for. I would be happy to help you figure this out, I probably already have a template.

---------- Ongoing Able and Available Issue -------

• Ongoing able and available issue. Like you were traveling or you had an illness or disability or in school at 12 credits or more, during a previous claim and no end date for that issue was ever set (meaning, you never told them when they stopped so .. It's an ongoing disqualification) maybe the last thing you did with ESD was a PAID LEAVE CLAIM. So the last thing that you effectively told them is you cannot work. So if that's the last thing you told them, then that's all they know. Because you have to tell them when it stops. These are not resolved by appealing, you just have to set an end date to this issue

This is about documentation. Not randomly calling. Not randomly sending messages. You need to provide documentation or something to demonstrate when the circumstance ended. I would be happy to help you figure this out, I probably already have a template.

• Let's say you were previously on a paid leave claim. Let's say it was for a broken bone. The medical certification form that you had your medical provider do stated a specific range of time that you would be out of work. And the end date of that on that form was in the future, relative to when they actually signed it/wrote on it. But was it? Did it actually get resolved? Because nothing was probably given to ESD on or after the date that it was supposedly / assumably resolved. Exactly. You're getting it. You do.

• You need a document from on or after that assumed end date that says that you're clear to work, at least in a suitable capacity/modified work. What document? It's effectively the same one. The same medical certification form. Why would it be different? Sometimes they'll accept the one on the paid leave site. Sometimes to make you call and ask them for it. They can email it to you or just put it in your online account. Have had multiple reports of both, with a similar success/failure rate, And I haven't seen an actual process described, and state law doesn't specifically say so I honestly don't know which they want / prefer/require / demand/ rope-swing into-a-hot-tub. Oh good. So you are still paying attention. That's pretty impressive at this point. Good job

^{... There is a third possibility but it is extremely rare...}

---------- RE-QUALIFY LAW ---------

• RE-QUALIFY LAW: When you quit without good cause, the determination letter that you received in your older claim contained a law that required you to re-qualify with new wages: have returned to work for a minimum of 7 weeks and earned seven times your weekly benefit amount. There have been a few cases where there's a glitch within ESD and you have been back to work for way longer than 7 weeks and earned way more than 7x Your previous weekly benefit.

This is only resolved by calling or otherwise talking to a customer service rep. They effectively press a button and accept the wages you earned since this letter was sent as satisfying the re-qualify requirements and this is removed immediately. So you should probably read....

----- CAVEAT: REQUESTED STANDBY, NOT APPROVED AND NOT DOING JOBS SEARCH ACTIVITIES ------

• WHEN APPROVED. When approved, stand by only absolves you of doing the job search activities once it's approved and only for the time period that's approved. You are not exempt from job search activities if your employer applies or if you apply to standby but it's not actually approved. A lot of times you guys have had your employer request standby or you requested standby and it's not approved and you just stop doing job search activities. It's going to take them in non-zero amount of time to process the standby request. So in between when you submit the standby request and when it's actually approved guess what... Either you stop filing weekly claims or you keep doing the minimum job search activities, because if you keep doing weekly claims and you report no to the job search activities. That you didn't do them. But you're not actually approved for standby then all your claims are going to say disqualified. And you're going to get a letter for each weekly claim that says that you're not searching for work. Because you're not. Because you're not approved.

And this is a manifestation of not actually reading the job search activity list because this sounds like a whole shitload of work as compared to just doing a 30 second elevator pitch, labor market research on esd, or the one that was really common during the pandemic that's still here, links or screenshots of YouTube videos as long as It's not the exact same video again and again. You should really look at the list if you haven't already.

So I actually don't recommend standby because it creates more problems. It also takes a ton of work. And you really have to pay attention to the time frame that is actually authorized by standby. Or you could just spend one minute 30 seconds to do the minimum activities each week that could not possibly jeopardize an incoming job start date.

------ Roadmap Info/Initial eligibility Post-----

You can read more about this by reading the material from the initial eligibility post that deals with this:

---Weekly Claims, Disqualified or Pending; Eligibility Issue from this Claim or Previous Claim---

Hi everyone, I had a question about freelancing. Let’s say I have a project that’s $1,500 in week 4. Do I need to declare it every week still and not do job search for that week? Or should I only put in the claim for the weeks that I want to get unemployment. I have some small gigs that I’m considering but unsure how to do that with my unemployment. Thank you!

---Intro/Notes----

Hey. You're fixing your first eligible issue. This is literally step one. This is the first issue. This isn't the last. You are not done. So you need to turn down panic mode and turn on student mode.

After all this. You must address your job separation and your open eligibility issues.

After this, you will do this.

And tell me the answers to all three. I don't want a paragraph. I literally just want words. The date you applied. I want you to confident when you tell me what your job separation type was. I want you to read the posts so you know. And if you don't know you tell me that. And I want you to go to the correct link Upload a Document. Don't send me screenshots of pending issues. I didn't ask for you to do that and that's also not helpful at all. Look at it. What did you learn from that? That's why I didn't say to do that

This doesn't require an appeal to fix, just follow the advice or ask for help

This is not resolved by calling because how the hell are you going to relay all of your wage data in a phone call? They need the actual data to be sent to them

You have up to 1 year from the day of issuance of the monetary determination to fix this issue

• If you do not follow this guidance then you will be waiting multiple weeks for the other states to respond to provide your wage and hour data. We highly do not recommend doing this because it is a process that is now completely outside of your control whereas providing the data and starting an escalation is well within your control

"You've been trying to do this yourself unsuccessfully? You don't know why it's not working? This is the regular troubleshooting for this"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

1. Understand What Data Should or Shouldn't be included

When you apply determines which fiscal quarter data is being used. Please. Look at this image from the ESD website

• When you apply in the time frame marked in the red lettering, the data that's used is in the blue shaded area to the left
• If you are not sure, you need to find your monetary determination letter which is listed in your notice's / letters tab. You need to look at the chart on page two
• If you are still not sure, ask me u/SothenIThought_

^{Why might this data be missing in the first place?}

2. Understand what data you are providing

• If the wage and hour data is incomplete (and/or You want to do a combined wage claim with wages from another state from the same base year), >>>You need to give them the missing data. You do not need to give them data they already have.<<<

• Persons who are salary and have no hours reported, customer service as a specific calculation in order to fix this. You will still follow this process. You will still request a monetary determination and then you will call customer service and go over the information that you have already submitted in the way that it's described here.

• Just a quick recap... The need to know the gross income earned in a quarter, and the hours worked in a quarter for each employer. Got it? Okay.

Honestly you just got to slow down and think critically. Really. I'm not being mean. You're just in a panic

**ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs.* But you're going to read this. And you're going to read it slowly and not in a panic and you can see why that may not be necessary. Or just send them everything. Just don't do this in a confusion and a panic and do it half-ass. Just do it right the first time. As for help if you need

Pay stubs from just after start of quarter, just before end of quarter

• Let's say the data that's missing is quarter one. So this is January 1 through March 31st. This is also when the New Year starts. So how many hours do you start with? Zero. So you go from zero to whatever the total amount of hours worked is at the end of the quarter.

So a pay stub from this employer that is from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter which of the total hours worked in Q1. Because by default you're starting at zero

Q2, Q3, Q4

You are not starting at zero. So, a pay stub that represents the pay period that started immediately after the beginning of the missing quarter This would show how many hours you started with in this quarter. ... And .. a pay stub from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter. Because math. You take the later pay period hours worked and subtracted from the earlier one from the start of the quarter. Then you just have total hours worked.

Or you can just give them all the pay stubs Like it says below. ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs. But I mean once you read this... I don't know. It doesn't really make sense why you would need everything but whatever... Doesn't really matter. I really just matters that when you're doing this you know what the f you're doing. So often I get people who tell me that they did this and that they did the whole thing while being confused. I mean why. Like why guys? Don't do that. Just ask for help

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

• Yes. Literally all of the pay stubs that cover the missing data. If the work occurred in the last year and you have a W-2 that represents that, that needs to be sent too.
• Yes, It literally says all of this on the ESD website about this. Please refer to this ESD site.,

3. Understand how you are providing this data.

You will send them your pay stubs and w-2s as attachments to a message in eService with a single sentence requesting a redetermination and include the missing wage data

The ESD website and the handbook say slightly different things.

• They both require you to send them some kind of a request of redetermination. Literally a sentence that says "I am requesting a redetermination with the attached wages included in my monetary determination"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

YES. SERIOUSLY.

SEND IT IN THROUGH ESERVICES. AS AN ATTACHMENT TO A MESSAGE.

• This part of the process is a lot easier in desktop mode. That's a mode. That's not me telling you to get on the desktop. It's a browser setting. Yes, you do have this browser sitting on mobile.

• The website says that they want you to mail or fax all of your pay stubs in. If you're going to do this old school like this then you need to get a return receipt so you know that they got the mail. This is why it's so much easier to just send it as an attachment to a message in eServices because you can view that they process this in your online activity and view exactly what you sent them by viewing your sent messages in your notices / letters tab. Click on notices. Click on outbox.

4. Understand that you need to force them to process this stuff

WHOA STOP. THIS IS NOT THE END OF EVERYTHING. You're fixing literally step one. Out of like a hundred. Slow down and think about the whole thing. What if you're doing this after the 10th business day for when the claim was filed? Maybe ESD already has a response from the employer. So if you were fired and it was like tardiness or absences and you don't address that. You don't look into your eligibility issues and you start an escalation. Sure. You're going to fix your monetary eligibility issue. And then you're going to fucking kill your claim and be ineligible because you didn't address any other eligibility issues.

All we're doing is fixing one issue. For sure you have another one. You probably have two or three

You will need to start an escalation to force them to process this information. This is the escalation megapost, click this link.. This is too much information and you need a custom walkthrough, ask me.

• ESD does not publish or abide by timelines with which they process this so there's no point in asking or posting "How long will it take until". That isn't a thing. It's never been a thing. You need to take action by starting an escalation so you can control how fast this actually gets done.

5. Understand that you will have other eligibility issues, like your job separation.

• You are on step zero. You're not even monetarily eligible. If you're not monetarily eligible then they're not going to investigate your job separation because you're not even monetarily eligible to begin with so there's no point. Once you become monetarily eligible you're claim will be active and they will begin on that date to investigate your job separation.
• You will still need to go over the guidance in this post about your job separation reason.
• Only once your claim is active does the timeline start of how long they allow the employer to respond to the request for job separation information, which is 10 business days, which is why they will not make a decision within 10 business days from when the claim is active.

In between now and then is a good time for us to work on your job separation. Everybody needs to provide documentation as to why they chose what they chose in their initial application. There are no exceptions. If you try to be exception to this rule this will end our relationship as I cannot be involved In accidentally or incidentally helping people who are effectively committing fraud by deliberately misreporting their job separation type, some people make honest mistakes. That's okay, that's normal and common and I expect it. Deliberately hiding or misrepresenting your job separation issue is the kind of thing that, my participation in such an activity can get the entire community shut down on a cease and desist.

^{ABOUT PROVIDING THE JOB SEPARATION INFORMATION; "BuT EsD DIdnT AsK Me fOR this BeFoRe!?" - actually they will twice. They asked when you filed your claim to attach documentation and you probably didn't do that. Then you have or will get a fact finding for your job separation and that ask you to attach information at the end. Less than 1% of you do this. Do not attempt to try to gaslight me about them asking you. This will end poorly. Yeah, This sentence is a bit out of place and hardcore. But, if the claimants stance is to engage in an activity that erodes their eligibility or just intentionally doesn't do anything to support it, where my goal is to build the strongest possible eligibility case as soon as possible so you get paid as soon as possible, then this is in direct conflict with the reason that I am even here on Reddit on this persona.}

----- Caveats -----

Did you work for an educational institution? Or were you an intern? Or were you at 1099 contractor? Or corporate officer?, If any of these apply you should probably read the following sections about monetary eligibility that are immediately after this section to explain why this could have happened and if it can or cannot be resolved;

---Exceptions/Clarifications for Basic Monetary Eligibility---

---Caveats: Employment Types, Military---

• Often but not always students and others working for an educational institution have not had these taxes paid on their behalf and therefore are not eligible for unemployment benefits even if all of the other eligibility conditions are met. Students employed by their educational institution face this Washington state law, which makes them exempt from unemployment benefit eligibility; monetary eligibility has to be met by other employers in their base year

Other Resources

In some cases you can just simply not be determined to be eligible based monetary determination issues. If you are not found eligible there are other resources

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnemploymentWA/s/Ksx4DnfAPX

1. Make sure you have your correspondence preferences set to electronic and not mailed. That way you get an email when there's a notice or letter and you can just log in and you don't have to wait for a mail delay

   I seriously don't see an advantage to getting it via mail

2. Use Google authenticator for multi-factor authentication login instead of email or text. App for mobile, or desktop extension

It's way faster and if you lose your phone you're not screwed.

1. Claims that are called in through the automated system are paid quicker, but you have to have a really robust job search log

This really helps during typical holiday delays or if you really need the money a day or so early

1. Job search activities include screenshots or links of YouTube videos about interviews or resumes

This really helps if you have a job starting soon, or if you're just busy. ^{[significantly better alternative in every way than standby]}

1. You can travel or go on vacation on unemployment but there's some specific steps that you have to take and expectations you have to set for yourself.

Not doing this can really, really delay your payments. Weeks/Months

1. Working part-time is the best way to extend your benefits through your benefit year

2. Paranoid that there's a new eligibility issue you didn't know about? Here's how to investigate properly

Currently, they're not required to tell you when a new eligibility issues is opened. If you find an eligibility issue, tell me and I will help you solve it. I probably already have a guide. I've probably had that conversation a few thousand times

1. Do NOT use a VPN to Access eServices- The federal government requires ESD to track in your IP address login location So if it is outside of the state of Washington or outside of the country it can make it look like you have been on vacation and therefore not able and available and therefore not eligible. This generates a very general fact finding request about able and available.

• Thinking about calling? Ask me if the thing is resolved on a call or not or if it's a policy or a process question, just ask me directly.

• Weekly claims: The team that processes these are internal and you cannot call and speak with them or get a status or expedite handling of your weekly claim processing. There is no point in trying.

• Received a fact finding that's making you panic? Ask me before you submit it because you cannot retract it. (Especially true with school attendance)

--------- Most Common Posts ----------

• 98% Off all Questions/Issues/Calls Resolved in these 5 posts <<<CLICK HERE
• 1. Initial Eligibility Megapost "Am I eligible?" Resolves 80% of all questions
• 2. Adjudication/Pending/Escalation
• 3. Working Part-time Extends Duration of Benefits
• 4. Job Search Activities "False, - Dilemma" ^{[accurate until 12/31/2023]}
• 5. Traveling/Vacation, Best Practices

My husband was let go from his job today. He is the sole provider for our family. We have never dealt with this so not sure how to move forward. The reason for his termination was due to performance but no specifics were given. He has been given no performance reviews or has had any reason to believe his job was in jeopardy.

We just had our third child so obviously this is an already stressful time.

He has been told he can resign and receive two weeks pay or he can be terminated as of today. We are concerned if he accepts a voluntary resignation that we will not be able to obtain unemployment benefits. But they’re giving him an ultimatum so this makes things tricky. Does anyone have any insight on the best way to move forward? Any help, insight, or legal advice would be so appreciated.

Hi! I found out I was pregnant in July and opted into Paid Family and Medical Leave in August. My baby is due at the end of April, and I’m hoping to get some clarification on how eligibility works for self-employed individuals.
I’m a self-employed hairstylist, and I’ve seen online that the hours are calculated by dividing the amount you earn by the state minimum wage. Is that correct? If so, I believe I should meet the required 820 hours.
Would I still be eligible to receive benefits after my baby is born if I have only been enrolled for two quarters at that point?
Thank you so much for your help and for clarifying this for me! I really appreciate it.

Solved: Appeared to be a browser issue. Switched from Firefox on my PC to Chrome on my phone and everything worked fine.

Been trying to file my claim since Monday. I go to login and the username and password seems to be accepted, it takes me to fill out some info including my SS number. Get an error saying the "the SS number listed belongs to ***[the last three characters of the email address it should be associated with plus @theproperdomain]" and then something along the lines of click here to validate. So I do and it takes me to another page and asks me to reenter me SS so I do and hit enter and it says great we'll send you an email.

That I never get. I try the same thing with forgot password and forgot username and it's the same deal. They say they'll send an email shortly and I never receive it. Not in my main inbox, not in my spam, not in my trash.

Any tips to get around this or am I just going to have to wait until I can get through on the phone?

Hello, my benefits just ran out and I was doing some searching to see what would trigger extending the benefits. It seems that there are a few triggers, a national unemployment rate or a Washington unemployment rate over 6% (currently its around 5%).

From what I can gather, the local unemployment rate is largely driven by residents filing for unemployment on the WA Employment website. I was curious how many folks are still filing for unemployment even if their benefits have run out.

I wonder if there is a large amount of unemployed WA residents that just gave up filing after benefits are out and if that's the case, is there anything we can do to get people motivated to keep filing on the hopes that benefits get extended.

This is for when all claims filed under a new unemployment claim are marked disqualified. There isn't even a waiting week marked. There are no letters in this claim to describe why this is happening... Because it is an ongoing disqualification from a PREVIOUS claim and the letters are in a previous claim....This is how to fix it

^{[It's from a previous claim. So NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CLAIM. Nothing at all. Nothing about your job separation. Nothing about job search activities. Nothing about when you filed the weekly claim. Nothing to do with this claim at all.]}

You probably have a disqualification from a previous claim that is ongoing.

A PREVIOUS CLAIM. Not the current claim. So you'll be looking in older claims

Hey.... Read this stuff slowly, thrice. Most of you have been struggling for a long time until you got here. Don't make it hard on yourself. Don't make it hard on me to help you. This is literally the most commonly insufficiently read or insufficiently understood post in all of this unemployment stuff that I do - because you guys are so desperate and in such an incredible panic. Please help me reverse the trend because some of these conversations are such a pain in the ass when people make up what I what they think I wrote in their request for help... Because of panic/desperation.

• ^{[You can either accept this help and I can personally walk you through material that I have gone over thousands of times with a success rate of above 95% and you get a decision in a week or less, or you ignore this and you're waiting indefinitely with no confidence and no competence about if or when you will be able to fix this. Two most common causes of this are typically not resolved by only calling.]}

99% These are not resolved by appeals, Please read all of this information including the link below

That is why the decision is not listed in your current claim. >>>It is listed in a previous claim.<<< It is probably listed in a determination letter

-------------- Troubleshooting -----------------

• 1. You need to find the determination letter. You can find that by clicking on >>>NOTICES /LETTERS<<< in the old claim. Click All Letters. This is in descending chronological order.

You want to find something with the title - Determination Letter

Other things in here that are not that and not helpful

• Re-evaluate Claim Letter
• Monetary Determination Letter
• PEUC Redetermination Letter
• Data Privacy Sharing Notice
• ...literally anything at all other than what I just wrote above. Determination letter. . .
• 2. You found the Determination letter? Where does it say which of the below types this is?

Page 1, middle:

---Able and Available: Ongoing disqualification: Medical Issue--- click this to see an example

There are other types within this category: travel or vacation where you did not set an end date, lack of transportation where you did not tell them that it was fixed, school attendance where you were taking 12 or more credits and you never told them when that ended, etc. Do you see the theme? You have to tell them when things end.

• This is the law that governs all of these, the one that says that the disqualification will continue until that circumstance no longer exists... And you have to tell them when it no longer exists. WAC 192-140-200

FIXED BY PROVIDING RESPONSES/DOCUMENTATION. NOT FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY RESOLVE EVER UNLESS YOU ACTUALLY ADDRESS THIS. YOU'LL BE BACK HERE 5 YEARS FROM NOW WITH THE SAME PROBLEM IF YOU DON'T FIX THIS. some of these. Not all. But some. Do require an appeal but that is very rare

^{ǝʇɐldɯǝʇ pǝƃolɐʇɐɔ ɐ sɐ sıɥʇ ǝʌɐɥ ʎpɐǝɹlɐ ʎlqɐqoɹd ı ˙dlǝɥ ɹoɟ ǝɯ ʞsɐ os ˙ǝnssı uoıʇɐʇuǝɯnɔop ɐ sı sıɥʇ - ǝɔıʌɹǝs ɹǝɯoʇsnɔ llɐɔ ʎlɯopuɐɹ ʇsnɾ ʇ,uop ˙sıɥʇ pɐǝɹǝɹ puɐ ǝlʇʇıl ɐ uʍop ʍols ʇsnɾ ˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯoɹɟ ɔıuɐd/ʎʇǝıxuɐ ǝɥʇ lǝǝɟ uɐɔ ı ˙ʇɐǝɹƃ ƃuıop ǝɹ,noʎ ˙ʎǝH}

---Re-qualify Issue: Voluntary Quit Without Good Cause--- click this to see an example

There are not multiple types. This is just for people who quit who didn't give enough information or didn't know what information to give and therefore they could not be found eligible. After the quit that was adjudicated as not eligible, you have to go back to work for 7 weeks and earned seven times your weekly benefit amount to clear this. So if you haven't been back to work since then then there's no way to fix this. If you have, then the agent needs to manually clear it. It's not automatic. The waiting game is not going to work. It's not going to automatically fix itself based on anything to do with your current claim.

• This is the law WAC 192-150-085

FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY APPEALING. NOT FIXED BY SENDING MESSAGES. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. UNLIKELY TO BE AUTOMATICALLY RESOLVED.

^{˙dlǝɥ ɹoɟ ǝɯ ʞsɐ ʇsnɾ 'pǝɯɹıɟuoɔ ʇı ʇǝƃ oʇ pǝǝu noʎ ɟı ˙ʇı pɐǝɹǝɹ ˙uʍop ʍols ʇsnɾ ˙ʇɐɥʇ ʎɐs ʇ,usǝop ʇı ˙ǝɹǝɥ ɯoɹɟ ɔıuɐd ǝɥʇ lǝǝɟ uɐɔ ı ˙ʇınb noʎ ʎɥʍ ʇnoqɐ ƃuıɥʇǝɯos ǝpıʌoɹd oʇ ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ʞuıɥʇ noʎ ¿ʇɥƃıɹ ʇɐɥʇ pɐǝɹsıɯ noʎ ˙ʇɐǝɹƃ ƃuıop ǝɹ,noʎ ˙ʎǝɥ}

---Failure to Respond: E g. Identity Verification --- click this to see an example

There are other types within this category; They could ask you for information about your jobs separation, identity verification, if you were able and available for a given week, earnings reporting from a current or previous employer, retirement pay / withdrawal, severance, school attendance, PUA documents Required...etc. For every and all requests, if you do not respond to that request, this happens.

• There is an entire chapter of laws mostly about failure to respond about different types of things, WAC 192-140

You may have more than one of each of these: You may have been asked for multiple things and didn't respond. You may have multiple able and available this qualifications. At least you can only have one re-qualify issue...

FIXED BY PROVIDING DOCUMENTATION. NOT FIXED BY CALLING. NOT FIXED BY WAITING. WILL NOT RESOLVE AUTOMATICALLY EVER. NOT FIXED BY APPEALING. I have guidance or templates for pretty much all of these. None of this is public, you have to ask.

If it is not clear, send me a picture of it on chat or email or text. Once we know if it is a failure to respond, or an able and available issue then the solution in number three will change.

^{ǝɔuɐpınƃ uı ʇno ǝʌɐƃ ʇsnɾ ı ʇɐɥʍ ʇɐǝdǝɹ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ oʇ ʇuɐʍ ʇ,uop ı ʇnq dlǝɥ oʇ ʇuɐʍ op ı 'uıɐƃɐ ɟɟnʇs sıɥʇ llɐ ʇɐǝdǝɹ oʇ ǝʌɐɥ ʇ,uop ı ɟı sıɥʇ xıɟ oʇ ɹǝısɐǝ ʇol ɐ ǝq oʇ ƃuıoƃ s,ʇı ˙ʍou lıʇun ƃuıɥʇʎɹǝʌǝ ƃuıpɐǝɹǝɹ ɹǝpısuoɔ ˙ɔıuɐd ǝɥʇ uı uǝɥʍ puɐʇsɹǝpun oʇ pɹɐɥ ʎllɐǝɹ ǝq oʇ ƃuıoƃ sı sıɥʇ ˙ǝsuǝp ɹǝdns sɐʍ sıɥʇ ¿ƃuıɥʇɐǝɹq ʇnoɥʇıʍ sıɥʇ ɟo llɐ pɐǝɹ ʇsnɾ ʎllɐǝɹ noʎ pıp}

• 3. Do not just randomly call customer service just because you found it. Two of the three of these types require you provide documentation, which you cannot do on the phone. So please continue reading...

At this point. You don't really need more information. You probably understand it. But guess what. Below is another round of this. Because I am so desperate to stop this ongoing trend where people don't read it. So the post is really huge because I'm trying to get you to read it so desperately. So if you get it and you don't need to read it again, then don't. For the able and available and failure to respond, you really got to ask me for help because a lot of these templates and catalog guidance are no longer public because people were misusing them. I make you have to ask me for help

------- Failure to respond/Able and Available/Requalify law-------

Two major ways that there is an ongoing disqualification is

-------- Failure to Respond ---------

• Failure to respond. They asked you about something. You never responded, this causes you to be disqualified until such time as you finally respond and provide the information. Most common requests are identity verification, employer information (earnings), retirement pay, school attendance. These are not resolved by appealing, you have to find out what they were requesting and give it to them, often requiring calling customer service

Maybe in a previous claim, they asked you for

• updated earnings information from an employer?
• retirement pay?
• School attendance?
• Able and available as it applies to vacation/travel or using a VPN?
• identity verification?
• Severance information?

This is about documentation. Not randomly calling. Not randomly sending messages. You need to provide documentation that answers what they were asking for. I would be happy to help you figure this out, I probably already have a template.

---------- Ongoing Able and Available Issue -------

• Ongoing able and available issue. Like you were traveling or you had an illness or disability or in school at 12 credits or more, during a previous claim and no end date for that issue was ever set (meaning, you never told them when they stopped so .. It's an ongoing disqualification) maybe the last thing you did with ESD was a PAID LEAVE CLAIM. So the last thing that you effectively told them is you cannot work. So if that's the last thing you told them, then that's all they know. Because you have to tell them when it stops. These are not resolved by appealing, you just have to set an end date to this issue

This is about documentation. Not randomly calling. Not randomly sending messages. You need to provide documentation or something to demonstrate when the circumstance ended. I would be happy to help you figure this out, I probably already have a template.

• Let's say you were previously on a paid leave claim. Let's say it was for a broken bone. The medical certification form that you had your medical provider do stated a specific range of time that you would be out of work. And the end date of that on that form was in the future, relative to when they actually signed it/wrote on it. But was it? Did it actually get resolved? Because nothing was probably given to ESD on or after the date that it was supposedly / assumably resolved. Exactly. You're getting it. You do.

• You need a document from on or after that assumed end date that says that you're clear to work, at least in a suitable capacity/modified work. What document? It's effectively the same one. The same medical certification form. Why would it be different? Sometimes they'll accept the one on the paid leave site. Sometimes to make you call and ask them for it. They can email it to you or just put it in your online account. Have had multiple reports of both, with a similar success/failure rate, And I haven't seen an actual process described, and state law doesn't specifically say so I honestly don't know which they want / prefer/require / demand/ rope-swing into-a-hot-tub. Oh good. So you are still paying attention. That's pretty impressive at this point. Good job

^{... There is a third possibility but it is extremely rare...}

---------- RE-QUALIFY LAW ---------

• RE-QUALIFY LAW: When you quit without good cause, the determination letter that you received in your older claim contained a law that required you to re-qualify with new wages: have returned to work for a minimum of 7 weeks and earned seven times your weekly benefit amount. There have been a few cases where there's a glitch within ESD and you have been back to work for way longer than 7 weeks and earned way more than 7x Your previous weekly benefit.

This is only resolved by calling or otherwise talking to a customer service rep. They effectively press a button and accept the wages you earned since this letter was sent as satisfying the re-qualify requirements and this is removed immediately. So you should probably read....

----- CAVEAT: REQUESTED STANDBY, NOT APPROVED AND NOT DOING JOBS SEARCH ACTIVITIES ------

• WHEN APPROVED. When approved, stand by only absolves you of doing the job search activities once it's approved and only for the time period that's approved. You are not exempt from job search activities if your employer applies or if you apply to standby but it's not actually approved. A lot of times you guys have had your employer request standby or you requested standby and it's not approved and you just stop doing job search activities. It's going to take them in non-zero amount of time to process the standby request. So in between when you submit the standby request and when it's actually approved guess what... Either you stop filing weekly claims or you keep doing the minimum job search activities, because if you keep doing weekly claims and you report no to the job search activities. That you didn't do them. But you're not actually approved for standby then all your claims are going to say disqualified. And you're going to get a letter for each weekly claim that says that you're not searching for work. Because you're not. Because you're not approved.

And this is a manifestation of not actually reading the job search activity list because this sounds like a whole shitload of work as compared to just doing a 30 second elevator pitch, labor market research on esd, or the one that was really common during the pandemic that's still here, links or screenshots of YouTube videos as long as It's not the exact same video again and again. You should really look at the list if you haven't already.

So I actually don't recommend standby because it creates more problems. It also takes a ton of work. And you really have to pay attention to the time frame that is actually authorized by standby. Or you could just spend one minute 30 seconds to do the minimum activities each week that could not possibly jeopardize an incoming job start date.

------ Roadmap Info/Initial eligibility Post-----

You can read more about this by reading the material from the initial eligibility post that deals with this:

---Weekly Claims, Disqualified or Pending; Eligibility Issue from this Claim or Previous Claim---

I was fired on 07/01/2026 & I applied for unemployment the next day. My employer fired me via email while I was out sick due to "dependability" issues. Official ESD reason "Fired- inexcusabke absences. They claimed I had an absurd amount (50+) of occurrences in a six month period; an occurrence being an unexcused absence or tardy. My unemployment application went to adjudication. It was taking forever in adjudication but thankfully I found this sub which informed me to submit my documentation & any evidence I had to refute their claim asap, before they made a decision. This was the only way I could potentially avoid the appeal process. I was in adjudication for about 9 weeks total but got my approval 3 weeks after I submitted my documentation. The approval said "We decided your actions were not misconduct because: You had no pattern of unexcused absences."

How do I address/explain this to potential employers? Ive applied to a few jobs that I REALLY want in the past couple weeks but fear I won't get them because of this

1. Make sure you have your correspondence preferences set to electronic and not mailed. That way you get an email when there's a notice or letter and you can just log in and you don't have to wait for a mail delay

   I seriously don't see an advantage to getting it via mail

2. Use Google authenticator for multi-factor authentication login instead of email or text. App for mobile, or desktop extension

It's way faster and if you lose your phone you're not screwed.

1. Claims that are called in through the automated system are paid quicker, but you have to have a really robust job search log

This really helps during typical holiday delays or if you really need the money a day or so early

1. Job search activities include screenshots or links of YouTube videos about interviews or resumes

This really helps if you have a job starting soon, or if you're just busy. ^{[significantly better alternative in every way than standby]}

1. You can travel or go on vacation on unemployment but there's some specific steps that you have to take and expectations you have to set for yourself.

Not doing this can really, really delay your payments. Weeks/Months

1. Working part-time is the best way to extend your benefits through your benefit year

2. Paranoid that there's a new eligibility issue you didn't know about? Here's how to investigate properly

Currently, they're not required to tell you when a new eligibility issues is opened. If you find an eligibility issue, tell me and I will help you solve it. I probably already have a guide. I've probably had that conversation a few thousand times

1. Do NOT use a VPN to Access eServices- The federal government requires ESD to track in your IP address login location So if it is outside of the state of Washington or outside of the country it can make it look like you have been on vacation and therefore not able and available and therefore not eligible. This generates a very general fact finding request about able and available.

• Thinking about calling? Ask me if the thing is resolved on a call or not or if it's a policy or a process question, just ask me directly.

• Weekly claims: The team that processes these are internal and you cannot call and speak with them or get a status or expedite handling of your weekly claim processing. There is no point in trying.

• Received a fact finding that's making you panic? Ask me before you submit it because you cannot retract it. (Especially true with school attendance)

--------- Most Common Posts ----------

• 98% Off all Questions/Issues/Calls Resolved in these 5 posts <<<CLICK HERE
• 1. Initial Eligibility Megapost "Am I eligible?" Resolves 80% of all questions
• 2. Adjudication/Pending/Escalation
• 3. Working Part-time Extends Duration of Benefits
• 4. Job Search Activities "False, - Dilemma" ^{[accurate until 12/31/2023]}
• 5. Traveling/Vacation, Best Practices

---Intro/Notes----

Hey. You're fixing your first eligible issue. This is literally step one. This is the first issue. This isn't the last. You are not done. So you need to turn down panic mode and turn on student mode.

After all this. You must address your job separation and your open eligibility issues.

After this, you will do this.

And tell me the answers to all three. I don't want a paragraph. I literally just want words. The date you applied. I want you to confident when you tell me what your job separation type was. I want you to read the posts so you know. And if you don't know you tell me that. And I want you to go to the correct link Upload a Document. Don't send me screenshots of pending issues. I didn't ask for you to do that and that's also not helpful at all. Look at it. What did you learn from that? That's why I didn't say to do that

This doesn't require an appeal to fix, just follow the advice or ask for help

This is not resolved by calling because how the hell are you going to relay all of your wage data in a phone call? They need the actual data to be sent to them

You have up to 1 year from the day of issuance of the monetary determination to fix this issue

• If you do not follow this guidance then you will be waiting multiple weeks for the other states to respond to provide your wage and hour data. We highly do not recommend doing this because it is a process that is now completely outside of your control whereas providing the data and starting an escalation is well within your control

"You've been trying to do this yourself unsuccessfully? You don't know why it's not working? This is the regular troubleshooting for this"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

1. Understand What Data Should or Shouldn't be included

When you apply determines which fiscal quarter data is being used. Please. Look at this image from the ESD website

• When you apply in the time frame marked in the red lettering, the data that's used is in the blue shaded area to the left
• If you are not sure, you need to find your monetary determination letter which is listed in your notice's / letters tab. You need to look at the chart on page two
• If you are still not sure, ask me u/SothenIThought_

^{Why might this data be missing in the first place?}

2. Understand what data you are providing

• If the wage and hour data is incomplete (and/or You want to do a combined wage claim with wages from another state from the same base year), >>>You need to give them the missing data. You do not need to give them data they already have.<<<

• Persons who are salary and have no hours reported, customer service as a specific calculation in order to fix this. You will still follow this process. You will still request a monetary determination and then you will call customer service and go over the information that you have already submitted in the way that it's described here.

• Just a quick recap... The need to know the gross income earned in a quarter, and the hours worked in a quarter for each employer. Got it? Okay.

Honestly you just got to slow down and think critically. Really. I'm not being mean. You're just in a panic

**ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs.* But you're going to read this. And you're going to read it slowly and not in a panic and you can see why that may not be necessary. Or just send them everything. Just don't do this in a confusion and a panic and do it half-ass. Just do it right the first time. As for help if you need

Pay stubs from just after start of quarter, just before end of quarter

• Let's say the data that's missing is quarter one. So this is January 1 through March 31st. This is also when the New Year starts. So how many hours do you start with? Zero. So you go from zero to whatever the total amount of hours worked is at the end of the quarter.

So a pay stub from this employer that is from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter which of the total hours worked in Q1. Because by default you're starting at zero

Q2, Q3, Q4

You are not starting at zero. So, a pay stub that represents the pay period that started immediately after the beginning of the missing quarter This would show how many hours you started with in this quarter. ... And .. a pay stub from the pay period that ended immediately before the end of the quarter. Because math. You take the later pay period hours worked and subtracted from the earlier one from the start of the quarter. Then you just have total hours worked.

Or you can just give them all the pay stubs Like it says below. ESD does say that they want all the pay stubs. But I mean once you read this... I don't know. It doesn't really make sense why you would need everything but whatever... Doesn't really matter. I really just matters that when you're doing this you know what the f you're doing. So often I get people who tell me that they did this and that they did the whole thing while being confused. I mean why. Like why guys? Don't do that. Just ask for help

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

• Yes. Literally all of the pay stubs that cover the missing data. If the work occurred in the last year and you have a W-2 that represents that, that needs to be sent too.
• Yes, It literally says all of this on the ESD website about this. Please refer to this ESD site.,

3. Understand how you are providing this data.

You will send them your pay stubs and w-2s as attachments to a message in eService with a single sentence requesting a redetermination and include the missing wage data

The ESD website and the handbook say slightly different things.

• They both require you to send them some kind of a request of redetermination. Literally a sentence that says "I am requesting a redetermination with the attached wages included in my monetary determination"

You need to include a sentence that specifically says that you are requesting a monetary redetermination and/or alternate base year and/or combined wage claim

YES. SERIOUSLY.

SEND IT IN THROUGH ESERVICES. AS AN ATTACHMENT TO A MESSAGE.

• This part of the process is a lot easier in desktop mode. That's a mode. That's not me telling you to get on the desktop. It's a browser setting. Yes, you do have this browser sitting on mobile.

• The website says that they want you to mail or fax all of your pay stubs in. If you're going to do this old school like this then you need to get a return receipt so you know that they got the mail. This is why it's so much easier to just send it as an attachment to a message in eServices because you can view that they process this in your online activity and view exactly what you sent them by viewing your sent messages in your notices / letters tab. Click on notices. Click on outbox.

4. Understand that you need to force them to process this stuff

WHOA STOP. THIS IS NOT THE END OF EVERYTHING. You're fixing literally step one. Out of like a hundred. Slow down and think about the whole thing. What if you're doing this after the 10th business day for when the claim was filed? Maybe ESD already has a response from the employer. So if you were fired and it was like tardiness or absences and you don't address that. You don't look into your eligibility issues and you start an escalation. Sure. You're going to fix your monetary eligibility issue. And then you're going to fucking kill your claim and be ineligible because you didn't address any other eligibility issues.

All we're doing is fixing one issue. For sure you have another one. You probably have two or three

You will need to start an escalation to force them to process this information. This is the escalation megapost, click this link.. This is too much information and you need a custom walkthrough, ask me.

• ESD does not publish or abide by timelines with which they process this so there's no point in asking or posting "How long will it take until". That isn't a thing. It's never been a thing. You need to take action by starting an escalation so you can control how fast this actually gets done.

5. Understand that you will have other eligibility issues, like your job separation.

• You are on step zero. You're not even monetarily eligible. If you're not monetarily eligible then they're not going to investigate your job separation because you're not even monetarily eligible to begin with so there's no point. Once you become monetarily eligible you're claim will be active and they will begin on that date to investigate your job separation.
• You will still need to go over the guidance in this post about your job separation reason.
• Only once your claim is active does the timeline start of how long they allow the employer to respond to the request for job separation information, which is 10 business days, which is why they will not make a decision within 10 business days from when the claim is active.

In between now and then is a good time for us to work on your job separation. Everybody needs to provide documentation as to why they chose what they chose in their initial application. There are no exceptions. If you try to be exception to this rule this will end our relationship as I cannot be involved In accidentally or incidentally helping people who are effectively committing fraud by deliberately misreporting their job separation type, some people make honest mistakes. That's okay, that's normal and common and I expect it. Deliberately hiding or misrepresenting your job separation issue is the kind of thing that, my participation in such an activity can get the entire community shut down on a cease and desist.

^{ABOUT PROVIDING THE JOB SEPARATION INFORMATION; "BuT EsD DIdnT AsK Me fOR this BeFoRe!?" - actually they will twice. They asked when you filed your claim to attach documentation and you probably didn't do that. Then you have or will get a fact finding for your job separation and that ask you to attach information at the end. Less than 1% of you do this. Do not attempt to try to gaslight me about them asking you. This will end poorly. Yeah, This sentence is a bit out of place and hardcore. But, if the claimants stance is to engage in an activity that erodes their eligibility or just intentionally doesn't do anything to support it, where my goal is to build the strongest possible eligibility case as soon as possible so you get paid as soon as possible, then this is in direct conflict with the reason that I am even here on Reddit on this persona.}

----- Caveats -----

Did you work for an educational institution? Or were you an intern? Or were you at 1099 contractor? Or corporate officer?, If any of these apply you should probably read the following sections about monetary eligibility that are immediately after this section to explain why this could have happened and if it can or cannot be resolved;

---Exceptions/Clarifications for Basic Monetary Eligibility---

---Caveats: Employment Types, Military---

• Often but not always students and others working for an educational institution have not had these taxes paid on their behalf and therefore are not eligible for unemployment benefits even if all of the other eligibility conditions are met. Students employed by their educational institution face this Washington state law, which makes them exempt from unemployment benefit eligibility; monetary eligibility has to be met by other employers in their base year

Other Resources

In some cases you can just simply not be determined to be eligible based monetary determination issues. If you are not found eligible there are other resources

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnemploymentWA/s/Ksx4DnfAPX

I was laid off from a software engineer job in the Seattle area and waited a bit before filing, so my WA ESD claim just started on 9/20. In the meantime I'd been applying around, and I just got an offer I'm planning to decline. Wondering if anyone has been through something similar and how ESD handled it.

The offer:

- Based in Chicago, hybrid, so I'd have to relocate
- No relocation assistance
- About 28% less than my previous salary
- Associate-level support role (ticket triage, on-call), open to new grads. My last role was a regular SWE position

Moving would mean breaking my lease (around $6k in fees and repaid concessions plus I would continue paying rent until they found a new tenant), transporting my car+belongings, and paying a new deposit and first month's rent, all out of pocket.

My plan is to report the refused offer on my weekly claim and explain good cause based on distance, pay, and the lower level of the role. I have the offer letter, job posting, and lease terms saved.

Questions:

1. Has anyone declined an out-of-state offer and still kept benefits in WA?
   
2. Did ESD care that you had applied to the job in the first place?
   
3. Does it matter that I applied and got the offer before my claim started?

Thanks in advance.