California Unemployment
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Can you collect unemployment if you are retired? California EDD situation explained
So I took early retirement from my job at a logistics company back in August - I'm 59, not full Medicare age or anything, just took the package they offered when they were downsizing. Got a decent severance but that's pretty much gone now and my pension doesn't kick in fully for another 8 months. Someone at my old job said I might still qualify for California EDD unemployment even though I technically "retired" - but I honestly don't know if that's how it works. The company basically pushed most of us out with this retirement incentive package, it wasn't like I woke up one day and decided to stop working. I'm still healthy, still want to work part time at minimum, and I have been applying to places. Has anyone actually been through this where they retired but it wasn't totally their choice? Did California EDD approve the claim or did they just deny it because of the retirement label?
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Can school cafeteria workers collect unemployment between school years? California EDD question
So I've been a cafeteria worker at a public elementary school for going on six years now. Every summer I get laid off because the district doesn't run the lunch program when school's out. Last summer I just figured I'd tough it out and pick up some shifts at a diner nearby, but this year the diner closed down and I really need those benefits to get through June, July, and August. My coworker told me that school employees can't get unemployment over the summer because we're 'reasonably assured' of coming back in the fall. But another coworker said that only applies to teachers and not to cafeteria staff. Now I genuinely don't know who to believe. I applied anyway through myEDD (https://myedd.edd.ca.gov/) two weeks ago but my claim just shows as Pending with nothing else explained. Has anyone here actually gone through this as a cafeteria worker? Did you get paid for the summer weeks or did EDD deny you?
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For anyone who gets denied - the appeal process is less scary than it sounds. Filed an appeal on a school worker denial two summers ago. The administrative law judge hearing was by phone, the notice came in the mail at least ten days before. I explained my job duties, confirmed I had no written contract promising me a fall return, and the judge reversed the denial. The whole appeal took a couple of months to resolve but keeping certified throughout was the right move.
Nobody told me that when I got denied two years ago. I stopped certifying immediately and just gave up. So even if I had appealed I would have lost those weeks.
That's the detail that bites people. The notice doesn't exactly advertise it in bold. Keep certifying, keep certifying.
Claimyr worked for my situation last summer too - bus aide at a school district, so same school employee category. Asked the EDD agent whether my CalJOBS registration had been received since I'd done it before the 21-day deadline on my DE 8405 but my payments were still stuck. Agent confirmed CalJOBS showed up fine and the pending was actually from the reasonable assurance issue, not the registration. Knowing that told me exactly what I needed to prepare for the interview.
This is actually really useful because I was worried CalJOBS was my holdup too. I might try reaching an agent just to confirm what's actually flagged.
Knowing which specific issue is holding things up makes the wait feel less like a black box. The agent can see the actual flags on the claim.
What happens when a former employee files for unemployment - California EDD employer side explained
So I got laid off from my warehouse job about six weeks ago and finally filed with California EDD last week. My supervisor actually told me before I left that the company "fights all unemployment claims" and that I shouldn't bother filing because I'd just get denied. That spooked me enough that I waited way too long to even try. Now I'm reading online that there's some kind of process where EDD contacts my old employer and they can dispute things? I reported my last day, my wages, everything honestly on the application. My claim is processing now and I'm just trying to understand what actually happens on the employer's end when someone files. Like does my old boss get to just call EDD and say whatever they want and I automatically lose? Do they have some kind of power to block my benefits? I was laid off, not fired, so I don't even know why I'm this worried but that supervisor comment really messed with my head. Can someone walk me through what the employer's role actually is in a California EDD unemployment claim?
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Checking back in because someone mentioned overpayments earlier and I want to add: if you ever realize you certified a week incorrectly - maybe reported wages for the wrong week or made an error - contact EDD through a message in your UI Online account or by phone before it becomes a bigger issue. The Report Wages option in UI Online only works before you certify that week, not after. Getting ahead of a mistake is way easier than dealing with an overpayment notice later.
Read every question during certification slowly. The wording can trip you up, especially the earnings questions about which week the money was actually for.
Claimyr was actually how I got through to an agent when I'd made a reporting error and needed to know what to do next. Asked the agent what options I had for correcting a past week and they said to send a message through UI Online explaining what the correct wages should have been. Filed that message the same day.
For anyone also coming from the employer side reading this thread - as a small business owner I've received the DE 1101CZ before when former employees filed. The process is genuinely designed to be neutral. EDD sends the notice, I had 10 days to respond with any relevant information, and EDD made the call. I didn't have any special power to override what EDD decided. The employee I'd laid off due to budget cuts was approved, which was the right outcome.
More employers should be transparent about how this works instead of using it as a threat. The system is set up to protect workers, not to give companies a veto.
Reading this whole thread has completely changed how I'm looking at my situation. My former employer has way less power here than I let myself believe. Filing was absolutely the right call.
Can you buy a car with unemployment income in California? EDD claimants share what happened
Okay so my layoff came through about six weeks ago and I've been getting my California EDD benefits pretty regularly, certified every two weeks, no issues. The thing is my car literally died last month - the mechanic said the engine is basically toast and it's not worth fixing. Without a car I can't get to job interviews, which feels like it defeats the whole purpose of the job search requirement. So my question is: can you buy a car with unemployment income? Like will a dealership or a lender even look at you if your only income right now is EDD? I went to one dealer last week and the finance guy kind of laughed at me, which wasn't great. But I've seen people say online that some lenders do count government benefits as income. Has anyone actually done this while on California EDD? Did you have to show your award letter or something? And does buying a car affect your unemployment benefits at all? I'm not asking EDD to pay for the car obviously, I just want to know if the benefit payments count as proof of income for a loan or if I'm wasting my time at dealerships.
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Just want to come back and say I finally got an appointment at a credit union for next Thursday. Printed my DE 429Z, six months of Claim History from UI Online, three months of bank statements, and made that one-page summary someone mentioned. Feel a lot more prepared than I did when I posted this. Will report back on how it goes.
680 credit score and a full documentation packet, that credit union appointment is going to go better than the dealer did.
Going in prepared makes such a difference. The dealer experience probably felt bad partly because you were walking in cold. This is a different situation.
Last thing that helped me when I was in this spot - I called Claimyr to reach an EDD agent and asked whether anything about applying for a car loan could affect my claim. The agent confirmed it doesn't, since EDD is only looking at work and wages when I certify. I'd been worried about it for two weeks for nothing.
That's exactly the kind of worry I had too. Good to have heard it directly from EDD.
Yeah I needed to hear it from someone at EDD specifically, not just people on a forum. Cleared my head.
How long does a pending payment take for unemployment in California EDD?
Filed my unemployment claim about three weeks ago and my UI Online shows all my certified weeks as Pending. Not a single one has flipped to paid. I did everything right — applied the day after my layoff, got the DE 429Z in the mail, registered on CalJOBS, certified on time. No notices about anything missing, no letters saying there's a problem, just... Pending. I'm starting to spiral a little because rent is due and I genuinely can't tell if this is normal processing time or if something went wrong that nobody told me about. Does anyone know how long a pending payment actually takes to clear for California EDD? Is there something I should be doing that I'm not?
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Filing a combined situation here — my partner had a similar pending issue but on a different kind of claim, and I had Claimyr pull up EDD for me again on that one. The agent confirmed the weeks were pending because a wage discrepancy question from the base period calculation was still open. Once we knew that, we sent a message through the UI Online account with the corrected wage records and things cleared up within about two weeks.
Sending wage documentation through the UI Online message system is a good approach — it creates a paper trail and the agent you spoke to can note the account that the documents are incoming.
Base period wage questions are really common and not something you'd know to look for from the UI Online screen alone. Good that you got to the bottom of it.
My pending situation was different — mine were stuck because I hadn't completed my CalJOBS resume posting within the 21-day window on the DE 8405. Payments paused and I didn't connect the dots until I spoke with an EDD agent. Fixed the CalJOBS side, messaged EDD to let them know, and the pending weeks released about a week later. If your CalJOBS status is in question, that's worth checking before anything else.
My EDD agent was very clear that CalJOBS and the resume posting are two separate steps and both have to be done. Creating an account doesn't count as posting a resume in their system.
Genuinely didn't know you had to post a resume and not just make an account. Going to log into CalJOBS right now to double check my resume shows as posted.
Ava Thompson
Benefit year question that came up made me think of something - if your 52-week benefit year ends before you've used your full maximum benefit amount, you can't just file a new claim and pick up where you left off. A new claim would need new wages in the base period to be valid. So for someone in a retirement situation where you may not be earning much, timing the original filing matters. File now, every week you delay shortens the window you have.
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Dylan Mitchell
Filing is the right move. Document your job search from day one, watch the mail for the DE 4800 and the DE 8405, and keep certifying every two weeks no matter what.
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Zainab Yusuf
For the retirement package interview especially - write down your version of events before that call. The more clearly you can walk through the timeline, the better it comes across. Your situation sounds like a real case for benefits.
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Amara Eze
Using Claimyr for my own pension reporting question a few weeks into my claim - the pension had technically started mid-month and I wasn't sure how to handle the first partial payment on my certification. The agent looked at my account and walked me through exactly which dollar amount to report for that partial month and confirmed the certification had already gone through without issues.
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Andre Lefebvre
AuthorThat's the kind of specific question that feels impossible to get answered through the website or the phone queue alone.
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Amara Eze
The agent was just able to look at my actual account - which weeks, what amounts, what was showing. Much easier than trying to guess from general information.
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