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So my 26 weeks are almost up and I honestly have no idea what happens next. The last payment on my UI Online Claim History is showing for week ending November 8th and I'm not seeing anything about what comes next. I was laid off from a warehouse job back in May and the whole claim process went pretty smoothly, benefit year started right away, got my DE 429Z, everything was fine. But now I'm sitting here wondering — can you file a new claim for unemployment when it runs out or is that just it? Like do I have to have a whole new job and lose it again to get back on? I tried looking on edd.ca.gov but couldn't find a straight answer. Anyone been through this?
Lost my job at a marketing agency last month after they cut the whole creative department - about 12 of us gone in one day. I always assumed unemployment was pretty much just for people who get laid off like me, but my coworker said her sister got denied even after a layoff because of some earnings requirement she didn't meet. Now I'm second-guessing whether I even qualify. I make decent money when I'm working but I had a slow stretch earlier this year with some freelance gaps. Does California EDD look at recent income or do they go further back? And what actually determines who can receive unemployment - is it just about how you lost your job or is there more to it?
My certification question - I've been certifying every two weeks like required, but my last certification still shows as pending in Claim History after five days. Is that normal or does it mean something is wrong?
For what it's worth to the original poster - sounds like a standard layoff with solid W-2 wages, which is about as clean a case as EDD gets. Apply immediately through myEDD if you haven't already, since the claim starts from the Sunday of the week you apply and you can't go back and claim earlier weeks.
Should be fine if most of your income was W-2. The confirmation number means EDD has it - now it's just the 2-3 week processing window for the first payment.
Okay so I need some help figuring this out. Back in 2022 I was collecting unemployment through California EDD for about six months after my company did layoffs in our whole department. When I was certifying every couple weeks I kept clicking yes to have the 10% federal withholding taken out because I read somewhere that unemployment counts as taxable income and I didn't want to owe a huge bill in April. I ended up going back to work in mid-2022 so I had regular W-2 wages plus the unemployment income all in the same tax year. When I filed my taxes I got a Form 1099G from EDD showing the total benefits paid and how much was withheld. My tax preparer said everything looked right but I keep second-guessing myself because the refund seemed smaller than I expected given how much was withheld. So my actual question is: if I paid taxes on unemployment through that withholding option during certification, is there any way to get a refund on what was withheld? Like does the 10% always get refunded or does it depend on your total income for the year? And is there any special California EDD process for this or is it just handled through my regular federal return?
Status update from my own situation: I finally got my 2022 amended return resolved. The issue was that my original return underreported the 1099G amount because my tax software pulled from an older version of the form before EDD issued a correction. The IRS matched the corrected 1099G to my return, flagged the difference, and I ended up owing a small amount. No penalties because I responded quickly. Moral of the story: always use the most current version of the form from UI Online before you file.
This is a really useful data point. I'm glad you mentioned checking UI Online for the most current version rather than just using whatever the mail arrives with.
My EDD account showed a slightly different total in Claim History than what ended up on the 1099G and I spent a week panicking about it. Got through to EDD using Claimyr after spending two mornings trying the regular phone line and kept getting the high volume message. The agent walked me through the difference and explained that one payment had been adjusted and the 1099G reflected the correct final amount. Took a weight off having it confirmed directly.
So I got laid off from my warehouse job about six weeks ago and finally got my UI claim processed. Weekly benefit amount on my DE 429Z came out to $387. Thing is, I have an active child support order from a couple years back and I'm already behind on payments. My ex's attorney sent something to my old employer for wage garnishment, but obviously that doesn't apply now that I'm not working. Does child support get taken out of unemployment benefits in California? Like does EDD automatically know about my support order and start deducting it, or do I have to contact someone, or does my ex have to go through the courts again? I genuinely can't find a straight answer anywhere and I'm stressed about whether my first payment is going to be a lot less than I'm expecting.
Payment history on my UI claim after the child support deduction started was way easier to track than I expected. UI Online shows the payment amount that actually posted, and you can see the weekly benefit amount on your DE 429Z to know what the full amount should have been. The difference is what was withheld. Not the clearest accounting but you can reverse engineer it.
Weekly benefit amount of $387 and child support potentially coming out - are you doing any part time work while on UI? Just want to flag that if you pick up shifts, you report what you earned for the week you worked, not when you get paid. The partial benefit formula still applies but it cuts into what you get. Worth knowing so you're not surprised twice.
The way it works is EDD calculates the partial benefit first based on your earnings for that week, and then whatever withholding order is in place applies to the adjusted payment amount. So yeah, both factors affect the actual deposit.
Okay so I finally got my DE 429Z in the mail last week showing my weekly benefit amount of $385 and I'm trying to figure out when money is actually going to show up. I was laid off from my warehouse job at the end of October and applied right away. It's been almost three weeks since I submitted everything and I verified my identity through ID.me already. UI Online shows some weeks as Pending still and I genuinely have no idea what the difference is between being 'approved' and actually getting paid. Like does the DE 429Z mean I'm approved? Do I need to do something else? I haven't certified yet because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wait for something first. Someone please help me understand the timeline here because I have rent due in two weeks.
Side question - I've been keeping a list of jobs I've applied to each week. Is there a specific number of applications EDD requires or is it just 'look for work' in a general sense?
Had three weeks stuck on Pending and finally reached an EDD agent. DE 429Z showed $375 weekly and I'd already certified twice with no payment at all. Used Claimyr to get to someone at EDD after getting nowhere on the phone on my own - ended up speaking with an agent who found that my separation information from my employer had flagged a question about how I left the job. She told me a DE 4800 had been mailed with an interview date and that I should check my UI Online homepage for the time. Got the interview sorted and payments released for all those pending weeks after.
Employer flagging something about how you left - that sounds like exactly what might be happening with my pending weeks too. I should try to get to an agent.
Fatima Al-Rashid
Work search requirements kick in from the first week you certify on a new claim, same as the original. EDD's rules require being able to work, available for work, and actively looking. Keep records of where you're applying — it's just a good habit even though EDD doesn't have you submit a weekly log. If EDD ever questions your work search, having dates and company names makes the whole thing easier.
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Fatima Al-Rashid
EDD can and does audit work searches, they just don't collect it weekly. If your claim gets flagged, they may ask for documentation. No log means trying to reconstruct from memory, which is rough.
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McKenzie Shade
I keep a spreadsheet with dates, company names, and how I applied. Takes two minutes per application and has never come up, but I sleep better having it.
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Giovanni Rossi
Claimyr got me through to an EDD agent when I was trying to figure out if wages from a short-term contract would count toward a new claim — that question was too specific for any forum to answer accurately. The agent looked at the wages EDD actually had on file for me and confirmed which quarters showed what amounts, so I could figure out whether filing now or waiting made more sense.
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Giovanni Rossi
The agent walked through the base period quarters with me and confirmed the wages in each one. Made the timing question actually answerable instead of just guessing.
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Zoe Papadopoulos
Having the actual wage amounts per quarter is the only way to use the EDD calculator meaningfully. Otherwise you're just estimating.
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