Can you collect unemployment if you are collecting social security? California EDD rules explained

That's a relief to hear. The person at the job center had me convinced I was wasting my time filing. My highest quarter at the distribution center was probably around $6,000, so I should be fine on the wage requirement.

SS income doesn't get counted toward those wage thresholds either, right? Like EDD only looks at actual work wages?

Correct — the base period calculation is about wages from covered employment, not benefit income. Social Security doesn't factor into whether your claim is valid.

How long did it take for your first payment to actually come through? I'm trying to figure out if I should be worried about this month's bills.

Took about three weeks from when I filed to get that first payment. There's the waiting week thing — the first week is unpaid, it's just the way the claim works — so the first actual payment covered week two. After that the certifications came through pretty fast.

three weeks sounds about right, that's what EDD says on their site too

The pension reducing the benefit is something I hadn't thought about — I don't have a pension from anywhere, just the SS, so sounds like I'm in the clear on that front. Good to know about the phone option too.

Wait so you do have to report Social Security when you certify? Or is it just pensions?

From what the agent said about my own claim, Social Security specifically is not deducted and is not reported when certifying. Pensions based on past work are a different matter — EDD decides how those affect the payment amount. The agent was clear that SS sits in a different category.

that tracks with what I've read on EDD's site, SS is specifically listed as not affecting unemployment benefits

I keep seeing people say you have to report SS when you certify and it was stressing me out. Glad someone is clarifying this clearly.

The confusion probably comes from the fact that pension income and retirement pay CAN affect benefits, and people lump SS in with that. They're treated differently under EDD's rules.

Okay so to summarize what I'm understanding: SS doesn't disqualify me, SS doesn't get reported on certifications, SS doesn't reduce my weekly benefit amount, but a pension MIGHT reduce it. That's the whole picture?

That's exactly it. And your weekly amount itself comes from your highest quarter of actual wages at the warehouse job, running anywhere from $40 to $450 a week depending on what your earnings looked like.

People mix up pensions and Social Security constantly when talking about unemployment. They're in completely different categories for EDD purposes.

Yeah his situation was more complicated than he let on — he had a pension from the county AND Social Security. The pension was probably what triggered the reduction, not the SS itself.

Mine is straight retirement SS, I've been 66 for two years now. Still very much able and available to work, so that part shouldn't be an issue.

Then you're in good shape. Keep records of your job search activities — where you applied, dates, that kind of thing — just as a good habit while you're claiming.

does EDD actually check your work search stuff or is it just the honor system

EDD can audit work search records, so keeping notes on where you applied and when is worth doing even if it feels like busywork.

I haven't gotten any DE 8405 yet, still waiting on mail from EDD. I'll watch for it and get the CalJOBS registration done right away if it comes.

The claim documents usually arrive within about two weeks of applying. The DE 429Z showing your weekly benefit amount comes around the same time. Check everything carefully when it arrives.

caljobs.ca.gov was actually easier to set up than I expected, took me maybe 20 minutes to get the resume posted

This is reassuring. Did anything unexpected come up during the process that I should watch for?

The only hiccup I had was my identity verification through ID.me took a few days to clear, which held up my first payment slightly. If you haven't done that yet, get it done through ID.me sooner rather than later.

Already did the ID.me verification when I applied, so hopefully that part is good.

Just tried the calculator — looks like I'll be getting around $280 a week based on my distribution center wages. Not huge but definitely helpful on top of SS.

That's a solid weekly amount for part-time work. And it stacks on top of the SS without any reduction, so your combined monthly income during the job search shouldn't be too bad.

The EDD site really does bury information like this. The main unemployment pages don't address the SS question at all — you have to dig into the certification details to find the one mention of it.

And then there's the phone situation. Tried calling 1-800-300-5616 for 45 minutes one morning and never got through to a person. Live chat through UI Online only runs 9 to 2 on weekdays which is basically impossible if you have any kind of job or appointment during those hours.

the phone lines are genuinely brutal, I feel this

Tell your dad to check the wage requirements first — he needs at least $1,300 in his highest quarter of the base period for the claim to be valid. If he was consulting regularly he might have more than enough.

His consulting income was pretty steady for two years so he should be fine on the wage side. I'll tell him about the CalJOBS registration requirement too since I didn't know about that until this thread.

Yeah I asked that question earlier and appreciate the clarification. I was confusing myself.

It's a natural confusion — both are government benefit programs, both show up in your monthly income, so people assume they're somehow linked for EDD purposes. They're completely separate systems.

Pretty much all California employers pay into UI, there's no opting out for private employers. Working for a nonprofit or government entity doesn't change your eligibility either — former workers at those places file and get paid just like anyone else. Your distribution center wages absolutely count.

Good to know, I wasn't sure about that. I've also heard something about how workers pay into unemployment through their paychecks — is that true?

That's actually a myth worth busting. Employers pay the UI tax, nothing gets taken from your paycheck for unemployment insurance. What you might see as a deduction on a California paystub is CASDI — that covers State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave, which are different programs entirely.

Huh, never knew that. I always assumed that deduction was going to unemployment somehow.

Definitely planning to use UI Online for certifications. I've already got the account set up from when I applied.

Set up direct deposit in myEDD while you're in there if you haven't already. Faster than waiting for the Money Network debit card to show up and load.

I did see this mentioned above and I think I understand it now — first eligible week is unpaid, the total amount the claim can pay doesn't change because of it. Is that right?

Exactly. Your maximum benefit amount is based on 26 times your weekly rate or half your total base period wages, whichever is less. The waiting week doesn't shrink that pool.

I didn't understand the waiting week at all when I first filed and lost a week of payments because I didn't certify. If you don't certify a week, EDD can't pay it.

Having someone with HR background confirm this is really helpful. Did you ever see situations where the interaction between SS and unemployment created any unexpected issues?

The only consistent wrinkle I saw was with pension income, not Social Security. Some employees had both SS and a pension, and the pension reduction sometimes surprised people. But pure SS? Never caused an issue on a California claim in my experience.

Pensions seem to be the thing that actually matters here and yet they barely come up when people search for the Social Security question. Worth knowing the distinction.

That's exactly the kind of specific answer I wish I could get. My base period question is whether my two years of part-time work all falls within the standard base period or if some of it drops off.

The standard base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the claim starts. So if you just filed, the most recent completed quarter may not be in it. If your wages in those four quarters aren't enough, EDD automatically looks at the alternate base period — the last four completed quarters — but only if the standard one doesn't make a valid claim.

Hopefully I won't need that, but good to know the timeline. 30 days from the mailing date, got it.

Keep certifying even if something comes up and there's a pending issue or an appeal. EDD can only pay back weeks that were actually certified — if you stop certifying during a dispute, those weeks are gone.

Used Claimyr to get through to EDD during that delay because UI Online just showed 'Pending' with no explanation. The agent confirmed the employer hadn't responded yet and told me EDD would proceed regardless, which settled my nerves completely.

Pending weeks with no explanation are the worst. Good to hear the system eventually moves forward even without employer response.

An employer not responding to EDD actually works against the employer — they lose the ability to appeal the claim decision if they don't respond within the timeframe EDD gives them.

I'll definitely turn on that 10 percent federal withholding — last thing I need is a bigger tax bill in April on top of everything else.

EDD sends a Form 1099G each January for the prior year. It also shows up in UI Online under Payments then Form 1099G. Keep that for your tax return.

California not taxing UI benefits is one of the actually decent things about this state's system

I hadn't heard about the training extension before. I'm not planning to go back to school but good to know that option exists in California.

The main thing is that the standard claim runs up to 26 weeks and there's no general extension right now beyond that. Training Benefits is one of the few ways to potentially go longer, but EDD has to approve the specific program first.

26 weeks being the max without training approval is something more people should know going in. I've seen people assume there's always an extension available.

That earnings formula is actually useful context even for my situation — if I pick up any part-time work while claiming I'll need to know how to report it correctly.

Report wages for the week you earned them, not when you get paid — that's the key thing that trips people up. If you earn it Monday through Sunday, that's the week it goes on even if the check comes two weeks later.