Last week at my job before this whole mess: the employer brought in a termination letter with a date that was actually two weeks before they told me in person. Same letter had a reason on it that was completely new — nothing I'd ever been told about before. Trying to understand if EDD considers the letter date or the actual last day.

Fired from a contract position right before my project ended, and my claim had been in a weird pending state for weeks. Used Claimyr to get an agent on the phone — the agent confirmed my identity verification had been flagged and walked me through what EDD needed. Got that resolved and certifications started processing normally after that. The DE 429Z had already been mailed, I just hadn't put it together that the ID step was what was holding everything up.

Two months post-exhaustion now with a new claim running and I want to report back that the system worked as described. Temp wages were in Q2, cleared the $1,300 minimum in that quarter, standard base period was fine. DE 429Z came 11 days after I filed, weekly amount was about 60% of my original claim because the temp wages were much lower than my warehouse salary. First payment took 21 days from filing. Waiting week was served on the first certification as everyone said. Currently at week 7 of the new claim and it's processing normally.

Just to add to the picture for the original poster and anyone else landing here from search: benefit exhaustion is not the same as being disqualified. A disqualification means EDD found you ineligible for a reason and issued a Notice of Determination with an Appeal Form. Exhaustion just means you used up the full amount the claim could pay. Those are two totally different situations with different paths forward. For exhaustion it's a new application; for disqualification you'd appeal within 30 days with the DE 1000M. Mixing these up causes people to do the wrong thing, which is why I wanted to flag it.

Benefits are federal taxable income - EDD can withhold 10 percent for federal taxes if you choose that option when you certify. California state income tax doesn't apply to UI benefits though. EDD mails a 1099G every January and it's also in UI Online under Payments if you want to find it digitally.

Appeal rights exist if EDD sends a Notice of Determination that you disagree with. You have 30 calendar days from the mailing date on that notice - not 30 days from when you receive it, from the date printed on it. Miss that window and appealing gets much harder. File the appeal in writing using the DE 1000M form that comes with the notice, or write a letter and send it to the address on the notice.

Finding a job at week 11 and then losing it at week 23 of my benefit year is what I went through, and reopening the claim was smoother than I expected. I had about 8 weeks of unused benefit amount left when my benefit year ended - I did lose those when the year closed. For the new job that ended at week 23, I reopened through UI Online immediately and collected the remaining weeks. If you have wages from jobs during your benefit year and your year expires, a new claim would be based on a new base period that might include that work.

Before this thread gets buried - one more piece that's worth knowing about the how many weeks question: the number of weeks you get is ultimately a math problem between your maximum benefit amount and your weekly rate. EDD's Unemployment Benefit Calculator on edd.ca.gov lets you work this out before your DE 429Z even arrives. Plug in your highest quarter wages and it spits out an estimated weekly amount. Then take half your total base period wages, divide by that weekly amount, and compare to 26. Whichever is smaller is your real week count. It won't be exact but it gets you in the right range for planning.

Still waiting on my own hearing notice, been six weeks since I mailed my appeal. My claim was for a firing situation where my employer claimed misconduct but I maintain it was a performance issue handled unfairly. Finding the whole wait excruciating. Benefits flagged as pending for all those weeks in UI Online.

My appeal hearing is next Tuesday and I'm reading this thread like it's going to save my life. Scheduled for 10am, I've got all my documents organized, I've rehearsed my timeline, I even printed out the CalJOBS activity log I've been keeping. The only thing I hadn't thought about was the witness option - going to call my former coworker tonight.