Can I temporarily pause my EDD claim during short-term freelance work?

You don't need to pause or close your claim! Just report your earnings honestly when you certify for those weeks you're working. If you earn too much in a week, you'll get $0 for that week, but your claim stays open. Then when your gig ends, you just certify as usual showing no income, and your payments will resume automatically (assuming you still have benefits remaining in your benefit year). Just make sure you keep certifying EVERY two weeks, even for weeks you work. If you stop certifying, your claim can go inactive after 2 weeks of no certification.

WRONG! I did this last year and it was a NIGHTMARE. EDD flagged my account for "income verification" when I started reporting earnings again and my payments got stuck in pending for like 2 months!!! They said I needed to do a phone interview to confirm my work ended, but could never get through to anyone. Total disaster. Be careful with this!!

the key thing is that u need 2 report ALL ur earnings during the week u worked (not when u get paid). so if u work mon-fri but dont get paid til the following friday, u still report those hours for the week u actually did the work. i made this mistake once and got a letter about potential fraud lol

To expand on what others have mentioned, when you certify for weeks with freelance work, you'll need to answer "yes" to the question about whether you worked, and then provide the following details: 1. Total gross earnings (before taxes) for that week 2. The hours you worked 3. The name of your employer/client If your weekly earnings exceed your Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA), you'll receive $0 for that week, but your claim stays active. If you earn less than your WBA, you may receive partial benefits calculated with this formula: Weekly benefit - (earnings minus $25). Also important: You must continue to be able and available for full-time work and actively seeking work during weeks you're certifying, even while doing your freelance gig.

I had something simular happen last year with seasonal work. When it ended I couldnt get ahold of anyone at EDD for weeks!!! Kept getting the "we're experiencing high call volume" message and getting disconnected. My roomate told me about this service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual EDD rep in like 20 minutes. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/JmuwXR7HA10?si=TSwYbu_GOwYzt9km and their website is claimyr.com. It was a lifesaver when I needed to explain my work situation changes.

Make sure you understand how your freelance earnings will affect your claim. If you're paid as a 1099 contractor, you'll report gross earnings before any expenses. If your freelance work is irregular (like some days full-time, some days nothing), report the hours and earnings for the specific days worked within each certification week. Also, important note: California's benefit year is 12 months from when you first applied. As long as you're still within that year, your claim stays open even if you don't certify for a while (though it becomes inactive after 2 weeks of no certification). Just remember that you only get a maximum of 26 weeks of benefits during that 12-month period, so if your gig doesn't work out, you'll still have whatever weeks you haven't used yet.

honestly the easiest thing is just keep certifying every 2 weeks no matter what. even if youre making too much money to get benefits during your freelance gig, just report it all accurately. the system will figure it out and youll get whatever youre eligible for. then when the gig ends your regular benefits pick back up automatically. its actually way simpler than most people think!