EDD SDI payment delay after surgery - sent paperwork 3 weeks ago and nothing!

Have you tried faxing your paperwork? Sometimes mail gets lost or delayed, especially when going to government offices. I had a similar situation last year after my knee surgery and faxing got my claim processed in just a few days. Also, did you create an SDI Online account before mailing your paperwork? They might have trouble connecting your paper claim to your online profile if you created the account after mailing.

yea the mail is super slow with edd stuff now. when i had my claim in Dec it took almost 4 weeks just to show up in the system! its crazy but pretty normal tbh

There's actually a way to verify if they've received your claim without having to speak to anyone. Log into your SDI Online account and check under "View Claim History" - even if your claim hasn't been processed yet, it should show as "Received" if they got your paperwork. If it's not showing up at all, then either they haven't scanned it into the system yet or they never received it. For surgical claims, the processing time should typically be 10-14 days once received, but the current backlog has extended that to 3-4 weeks in many cases. If you're approaching 4 weeks with no record of receipt, I would recommend submitting a new claim online through SDI Online and having your doctor submit their certification electronically. This is much faster than paper forms.

Honestly, the BEST thing you can do is actually talk to a live EDD representative. They can check if your claim was received even if it hasn't shown up in your account yet. THEY CAN ALSO expedite claims in hardship situations!!!! I was in a similar situation and wasted 3 WEEKS trying to get through on their phone lines with no luck. I finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an EDD agent in about 20 minutes instead of spending hours calling and getting hung up on. The agent found my claim in their system even though it wasn't showing online, and they were able to push it through for processing that same day. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/1X-mEsLtbmQ?si=1hcSq3KFtCr4oAmd Trust me, getting someone on the phone who can actually help is WAY faster than waiting for the mail system to figure itself out.

THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU GIVE UP!!!! They WANT you to get frustrated and stop trying to get YOUR MONEY that YOU PAID INTO THE SYSTEM!!! I had surgery last year and it took SEVEN WEEKS to get my first payment. Seven!!! And every time I called they gave me a different excuse. First it was "we don't have your doctor's certification" (they did), then it was "system backlog" then it was "your employer verification is pending" - all LIES to stall paying out. Don't give up - keep calling, document EVERYTHING, and if they don't resolve it soon, contact your state representative's office. That's what finally worked for me.

Based on your situation, I recommend taking a multi-pronged approach: 1. Submit a new claim online through SDI Online immediately 2. Ask your doctor to submit their certification electronically (much faster) 3. Try to reach an EDD representative who can check if your original claim is in their system 4. If you're facing financial hardship due to the delay, explicitly mention this to the EDD representative as they can flag your claim for expedited processing Also important to know: the postmark date on your original mailed claim will be honored as your claim date, so you won't lose any benefits if you need to resubmit. And for future reference, electronic filing typically processes in 7-10 days versus 3-4 weeks for paper claims.

my sister had something similar happen last year after her c-section delivery... her disability claim got lost in the mail and she had to go thru this whole process to get it fixed... actually i think she had to goto an edd office in person to get it straightened out? might be worth checking if theres an office near you that takes walk-ins if you can't get through on the phone