Does disability pay more than unemployment in California EDD?

Wait, so if I already applied for unemployment, do I need to cancel it or something? I filed the UI claim before I realized how bad my back was going to be.

What the agent told me for my own situation was to stop certifying for unemployment once I couldn't work anymore and file for SDI instead. For your specific situation I'd really just call EDD to confirm since the timing of your injury and the layoff are kind of tangled together.

EDD can't pay you for the same week under both programs anyway, so you're not going to accidentally double-dip. The system catches it.

So there's no general answer to which one pays more? I was hoping someone could just tell me one is always higher lol

Genuinely wish I could give you a clean answer but it really does depend on what you earned and when. Some people find SDI comes out higher, some find UI does. The base period math is similar but not identical between the two programs.

My SDI came out to more than my UI would have been but I had really uneven income across quarters so it hit differently. You just have to run the numbers for your own wages.

Same thing for me, SDI was actually higher. But my coworker had the opposite. No universal rule.

That deadline is kind of stressful. I'm already 2 weeks out from when the back thing really hit. So I still have time?

14 days in means you have roughly 35 days left before that 49-day window closes. File soon though, don't cut it closer.

The 49-day deadline caught me off guard when I had a medical thing last year. Filed on day 47 and it was fine but I would not recommend waiting that long on purpose.

The CASDI deduction on your paystub does fund SDI and Paid Family Leave, yes - that's the deduction workers pay. Unemployment insurance is actually funded by employers, nothing comes out of workers' paychecks for UI. So the 'we paid into it' framing really only applies to SDI, not unemployment.

Oh wow I always assumed both came from that deduction. Good to know.

Really common mix-up honestly. A lot of people think unemployment comes out of their check but employers pay that one entirely.

I would absolutely have clicked the wrong thing, thank you for saying this

The portal is a little confusing. Just make sure when you're in SDI Online that you select the DI option, not the PFL one.

Yeah the SDI Online layout isn't the most intuitive. DI for your own condition, PFL for family care or bonding - they're separate claims even though they're in the same system.

So once my doctor clears me I could switch over to unemployment if I still haven't found something? That's actually helpful to know

That's my understanding, yes - disability for the weeks you're out medically, then UI for the job search phase after. But confirm with EDD how the transition works for your specific situation since your layoff and injury overlapped.

Went through this exact sequence when I had a knee surgery during a gap between jobs. SDI while I was out, then opened a UI claim once I was cleared. The transition wasn't totally seamless but it worked.

Yes, there's a 7-day waiting period for SDI kind of like the waiting week for unemployment - you don't get paid for the first 7 days of disability. The 9-days-before-filing thing means you file after those initial days have passed. Then you have up to 49 days from when the disability began to file at all.

Got it, so the first week is basically unpaid either way.

Right, neither program pays you for the very first week. Unemployment has a one-week unpaid waiting period too, so there's always at least one week that's just gone no matter which way you go.

Your employer doesn't approve or deny your SDI claim - EDD does. What happens is your doctor fills out a certification of your medical condition as part of the SDI claim, and EDD reviews it. Your employer gets notified but they don't have veto power over whether you get paid.

Oh that's a relief, I thought my old employer could block it somehow

Employer notification freaks people out but they genuinely can't stop your SDI benefits. That's fully EDD's call based on your medical certification.

The identity verification thing is so easy to miss. I had to do the ID.me step and there was nothing obvious telling me my payments were being held for that reason.

Exactly - UI Online just shows Pending without explaining what's actually needed. The agent seeing the account directly was the only way to get the real answer.

Pending with no explanation is THE most stressful thing. You just sit there refreshing the screen hoping something changes.

ID.me has tripped up so many people. The process of taking the photos and getting it verified isn't always smooth the first time.

That's actually a really clear way to think about it. I definitely cannot take a full-time job right now with this back, so SDI it is.

Exactly. File for SDI, get your doctor's certification lined up, and then when you're cleared medically and back to full availability, that's when you reassess the UI situation.

That one-question test is genuinely the clearest explanation I've seen on this. Bookmarking this thread for-- actually I keep starting to say that. Just: good framing.

SDI kicks in for pretty short-term things too - even something like a 6-week back recovery like what the OP is dealing with. It's not just for permanent or catastrophic conditions.

That's good to know, I definitely assumed you had to be like, seriously incapacitated for months before it applied.

Any medically verified condition that stops you from doing your normal work qualifies for consideration - the duration just affects how long you'd be paid, not whether you're eligible to file.

Gray area situations are genuinely complicated and EDD has to make the call on those. If you can do some work but not your normal work, unemployment typically requires you to be available for any suitable work, not just your previous specific job. Whether your restrictions make you available or unavailable in EDD's eyes is something they'd determine, not something anyone here can answer for your specific case.

Ugh I figured it was going to be complicated. Might just have to call EDD and explain my situation directly.

Calling EDD and explaining your specific limitations is really the only way to get a clear answer on a gray-area situation like that. No forum post can substitute for them looking at your actual case.

It wasn't a work injury actually - happened moving furniture at home over a weekend. So workers' comp isn't relevant for me, but good point for other people reading this.

Ah good clarification - that simplifies things for you then. Workers' comp would have added another layer. SDI is definitely the cleaner path for a non-work injury.

Workers' comp and SDI is a whole other conversation but EDD does say it's not common to get paid both at the same time, there are exceptions but it gets complicated fast.

How long did it take from when you filed to when you actually got paid?

From filing to first payment was about 3 weeks for me, maybe a little under. The claim processing plus the waiting period meant there was a gap at the start.

3 weeks is about what I've heard too. It's not instant but it's not a months-long wait like some UI adjudication situations can be.

I keep getting this same answer - it depends on your specific wages - which I know is correct but still wish there was an easy answer lol

There really isn't a universal one, sorry. If I had to guess for a typical warehouse worker situation I'd say they often come out similar, but that's purely based on people I know, not any kind of rule.

The only way to know for real is to look at your actual highest-quarter wages and plug them into both calculators. Five minutes of math beats a week of wondering.

The 8am tip is real, I've done it. You have to have your coffee ready and hit redial the second the clock turns.

Redial immediately at 8:00:00 exactly, not 8:00:30. Those 30 seconds matter when everyone else is doing the same thing.

Even the 8am slot fills up fast now. I tried three weeks in a row and only got through once. Worth trying but have a backup plan.

California doesn't tax unemployment benefits at the state level - only federal taxes apply to UI. The 1099G you get from EDD in January is for UI only, it shows up in UI Online under Payments.

Right I should have been clearer - federal taxable, not state. Good correction.

You can also choose to have 10 percent withheld for federal taxes each time you certify for UI, which saves you from a surprise at tax time. Worth doing if you think you'll owe.

Thank you, this thread has been really helpful honestly. I'm going to file SDI today and stop certifying for UI since I clearly can't meet the able-and-available requirement right now.

That sounds like the right call based on everything in this thread. Get the doctor's certification submitted along with the SDI claim.

The fact that you can't honestly certify that you're able and available to work is really the deciding factor here. SDI is exactly the program for your situation right now.

Oh I had no idea about the CalJOBS thing for UI. Good thing I'm going SDI route because I don't even know what CalJOBS is.

CalJOBS is essentially California's job search platform - caljobs.ca.gov. When you're on UI you get a notice telling you to register and post your resume there within 21 days. For SDI purposes you can ignore it, but file it away because you'll need it when you transition back to UI once you're recovered.

The DE 8405 is the notice that triggers the CalJOBS requirement for UI claimants. If you got one of those in the mail after your UI application, hang onto it, but as long as you're on SDI and not certifying for UI you don't need to act on it right now.

The key question is whether you certified honestly about your ability to work. If you answered that you were able and available when you weren't, that's something you'd want to sort out with EDD. If you genuinely weren't sure about the rules and answered as best you could, reaching out to EDD and explaining is probably the right move. I wouldn't just keep certifying for UI while medically unable to work without at least calling EDD to understand your situation.

I definitely wasn't trying to do anything wrong, I just didn't know the rule. I'll call EDD to figure out how to handle the weeks I've already certified.

Calling EDD to ask about those weeks is the right instinct. Explaining the situation proactively is better than waiting for EDD to flag something. The number is 1-800-300-5616, weekdays 8 to 5.

Getting hold times on that number can be rough if you need to actually resolve something complicated on your account - I had luck reaching someone through Claimyr when I needed to sort out my own claim issue. Ended up talking through the whole thing with an agent who could see exactly what was happening.

The base period for UI is roughly the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters. The SDI calculation is similar but check EDD's site directly for the DI-specific calculation because the two programs aren't identical in how they look at your earnings history.

That nuance about which quarters get counted is exactly what I was getting at. If you had a pay increase recently it might fall in one program's window and not the other.

This is a good point - my situation where SDI was higher than UI would have been was partly because my earnings distribution across quarters worked out differently for each calculation. The programs really aren't just two versions of the same math.