Can you work and still get California EDD unemployment benefits at the same time?

Okay this is super helpful, thank you. So the 25% thing — does that apply to every dollar I earn or is there like a threshold before it kicks in? And when I certify weekly do I enter gross wages or what I actually got paid after taxes?

You report gross wages (before taxes) for the week you WORKED them, not the week you get paid. So if you work Tuesday through Friday this week but get your paycheck next Friday, you report those earnings on this week's certification. The 25% earnings disregard applies to all wages — it's essentially a buffer that lets you keep a bit more of what you earn without dollar-for-dollar reductions. There's also an upper limit — if your weekly earnings exceed your WBA plus 25% of your WBA, you won't receive any benefit for that week but your claim stays active.

wait i thought if you work ANY hours you just lose the whole week?? thats what someone told me when i filed last year

That's a really good point about the overpayment risk, I definitely don't want that headache. So I enter my gross wages for the days I worked that week even if I haven't been paid yet?

Exactly right. Wages are reported based on when you performed the work, not when you receive payment. California EDD is pretty clear about this in their certification questions. If you're unsure about any week, it's better to call and ask before certifying than to guess and potentially trigger an overpayment notice.

I've been dreading calling EDD because every time I've tried I just get the 'we cannot take your call' message. I'll check out that Claimyr thing, thanks for the tip.

yeah edd phones are basically impossible without something like that. spent 3 hours hitting redial one morning and never got through once

Does Claimyr actually work or is it one of those things that just takes your info and does nothing? Genuinely asking because I need to call EDD too

Oh wow I had no idea about this. So even though I'd be working 15-20 hours a week I still need to do the 3 job search activities per week?

YES. unless your part time employer puts you on standby status with EDD which means they expect to bring you back full time soon. if thats the case your manager would need to fill out paperwork and you wouldnt have to do job search activities during that standby period. but if its just a regular part time situation with no expectation of returning full time, full job search requirements apply

This is correct and really important info. Standby status is specifically for situations where your employer expects to rehire you full-time within a set period — usually up to 8 weeks and can be extended. Your employer initiates that process, not you. Without approved standby, job search activities are required every week.

That's really discouraging to hear. Did you ever find out why it went into adjudication?

eventually yes — it was because i had a week where my hours were higher and my earnings were really close to my WBA cutoff and apparently that triggered some kind of automatic review. once an agent manually reviewed it they released the payment but i had NO income for almost 4 weeks waiting for that

This is why keeping detailed records of every week you work — exact hours, exact gross pay, who you worked for — is so important. If you ever get an adjudication notice you'll want to have that documentation ready to reference.

wait so EDD actually checks what your employer reports vs what you said?? i always assumed they just trusted whatever you put in

Yes, definitely. California EDD receives quarterly wage records from employers and they do cross-reference them against your weekly certifications. This is actually how most fraud is caught — not from anything the claimant did obviously, but it means honest reporting is essential because inconsistencies get flagged automatically.

This is really good to know. I definitely plan to report everything accurately — just want to make sure I'm entering it correctly so nothing gets flagged by mistake.

Oh that's actually a really helpful detail I wouldn't have thought about. My employer pays biweekly so I'll need to manually break down which hours fell in which EDD benefit week.

exactly, you basically have to do your own math to split your earnings across EDD weeks if your pay period doesn't line up. keep a simple spreadsheet with each EDD week (Sun-Sat) and the hours/gross pay for that specific window. makes certification way easier and you have a record if anything gets questioned later

Really common fear! The partial benefits system exists precisely because the state wants to encourage people to take available work without being penalized entirely. You're not penalized for working — you just receive a reduced benefit proportional to what you earned. Much better outcome than turning down work to preserve full benefits.

yeah that totally makes sense now that I think about it. the all-or-nothing assumption was just something I had in my head that apparently isn't true at all

okay good i was definitely wrong about that then, thanks for clearing it up. so the claim stays open even on weeks where you earn too much to get a payment?

correct, and this is actually really useful if you have a good week of hours. you don't have to certify 'no' to working to protect your claim — just report your actual earnings, receive $0 for that week if you earned over the limit, and continue filing normally the following week

this is stuff they should just TELL you when you file instead of making everyone figure it out on forums

Good question and yes, it can be more complicated. If you return to work for the employer who originally separated you, California EDD may review whether your separation was truly a layoff or whether the employment relationship was actually just modified. This doesn't automatically disqualify you but it can trigger additional review. I'd really recommend calling EDD to discuss your specific situation before accepting work from your original employer. The details of how the return to work is structured — temp, part-time, contract — can all affect how it's treated.

This is actually exactly my situation — it's my original employer asking me back part time. I'm going to call EDD first for sure before I agree to anything. Really glad this was brought up.

yeah same boat as you OP. let us know what they say if you get through to someone!

I finally looked this up after seeing it mentioned earlier and yeah seems legit. going to try it this week because I've been putting off calling EDD for like 3 weeks now

I was skeptical at first but honestly given how impossible EDD phones are I'll try basically anything at this point

I checked out the video and I'm going to use this before I respond to my manager. Need to confirm the returning-to-original-employer question before I commit to anything.

What counts as an acceptable job search activity? I've been doing applications and saving the confirmation emails but I wasn't sure if that was the right format.

applications, interviews, contacting employers directly, attending job fairs, using CalJOBS — you just need 3 per week and should record the employer name, contact method, date, and outcome. screenshot or email confirmation of applications works great as documentation

Correct. California EDD may ask you to verify your job search activities at any time — during your benefit year or even during an audit afterward. Keeping a running log in a spreadsheet or even just a notes app is the easiest way to stay protected.

Honestly if you've been reporting your earnings accurately and doing your job search activities, you're probably fine. The system works smoothly for most people who just answer the questions truthfully — all this detailed knowledge is mostly helpful when something unusual comes up or when a claim gets flagged.

ok yeah i've been doing those things at least. I just didn't realize there was so much nuance to it. this thread made me want to double check my records lol

No difference in the formula based on how you're paid — hourly, salary, commission, or tips all go through the same partial wage calculation. You report gross wages earned during the EDD benefit week regardless of how your compensation is structured. The only slight complexity is with tipped workers who need to include tip income as well, but the underlying math is the same.

gotcha, good to know. I've just been doing gross paycheck amount which sounds like it's right then

You cannot edit a submitted certification through UI Online — once it's submitted it's locked. You need to call California EDD to report the correction. Don't wait on this one because unreported wages can become an overpayment issue, and it's always better to self-report an error than have EDD discover it during a wage cross-reference audit. When you call, explain you made an error on a prior certification and need to correct it.

okay good to know, I'll call this week. I had one week a couple months ago where I was confused about which week the wages belonged to and I might have put them in the wrong week

this happens more than people realize and EDD agents deal with it regularly. as long as you're proactively correcting it and not trying to hide anything, it almost always gets resolved without penalties

Thank you for updating!! This is super helpful for my situation too. What was the wait time like through Claimyr?

I think it was under an hour from when I started to when I had an agent on the phone. Way faster than anything I'd managed trying the regular way. Worth it for peace of mind before making a major decision about your benefits.

Great outcome and good on you for getting official confirmation before acting. The DE 1545D for standby is exactly the form your manager would need if they expect to bring you back full time — that could save you from the job search requirement during the temporary return period.

agreed, I learned more from this thread than from anything on the actual EDD website which is somehow impossible to navigate

hard agree. the edd website has the information technically but you have to already know what you're looking for to find it which defeats the purpose

Oh this is actually really good to know for when the temp gig ends. So I just keep certifying weekly the whole time even during the part-time work and then when it ends I just report zero wages again and get my full WBA back?

Exactly right. Continuous weekly certification is key — even during weeks you earn too much to receive a payment, staying current on your certifications keeps your claim in good standing. Gaps in certification can sometimes complicate things.

this is the kind of practical thing that would have saved me SO much confusion when i went back to part time. I stopped certifying thinking my 'unemployment was over' and then had to call EDD to reopen everything which took weeks