Does excessive earnings mean I won't get unemployment? California EDD question

Wait so she actually walked you through the quarterly math on the call? That's exactly what I need. I keep staring at my claim summary online and nothing tells me which quarter they even used.

Claimyr worked the same way for me — needed to ask about a reporting error from a prior certification and the agent I reached had the whole thing on screen. Got it sorted same day.

Good to know the agent confirmed it right on the call. EDD's calculator on their site can estimate it but nothing beats having someone read you what's actually on your file.

Oh that actually makes me feel a lot better. So the high quarter HELPS me rather than somehow flagging my account?

Yeah the phrasing 'excessive earnings' scared me too when I first filed. Turned out my check was fine, the high quarter just sets a higher weekly amount.

To add to what's said here — if for some weird reason your base period didn't have enough wages, EDD can automatically use the alternate base period instead, the most recent four completed quarters. But sounds like your base period is solid with those numbers so you probably won't need that.

EDD uses wages reported to them, so W-2 wages flow through automatically. 1099 freelance work is trickier — if you paid into SDI on those earnings or they were reported a certain way, they may count. Worth asking EDD directly about your specific 1099 situation rather than assuming either way.

Mine was actually through my employer's platform, they 1099'd me but it was part of a contract arrangement where I still paid self-employment taxes — genuinely not sure how EDD sees that and now I'm worried again lol.

Self-employment income and UI eligibility is one of those things where EDD really does look at each case individually. Don't panic yet, just wait for the DE 429Z and if the wage amounts look off you can appeal in writing within 30 days of the mailing date.

There's a maximum benefit amount, yeah. EDD pays out whichever is less — either 26 times your weekly benefit amount, or half of all your base period wages combined. So someone with a really high total annual income might hit that half-of-base-period cap before the full 26 weeks, but you'd still get paid, just fewer weeks at your full amount.

Ohh okay so they might pay out faster but you don't lose the money, you just reach the total sooner. That's actually not terrible.

That's something I hadn't even thought about — if my base period wages are high enough the total payout might be capped by the half-wages rule rather than the 26-week rule. Gonna look at this more carefully when my DE 429Z comes.

Pending in Claim History usually means EDD is working something out — could be an identity verification step, could be an eligibility question, could be wages they need to confirm. If you got a DE 4800 notice about a phone interview, the pending weeks likely won't move until that interview happens and EDD makes a decision.

No DE 4800 yet, which is part of what's confusing me. I quit my previous job before the layoff and started the one I just got laid off from, so maybe the quit is what triggered the review? I'm going in circles trying to figure out what they're waiting on.

A prior quit within your claim period can definitely trigger EDD to schedule a phone interview because they want to know the circumstances. Keep an eye on your UI Online homepage — the interview date and time show up there once it's scheduled, and the DE 4800 comes in the mail.

Used Claimyr to get an agent on the line about my own pending weeks — my situation was a gap in employment between two jobs and three weeks were just sitting there. The agent told me one week was held because a wage match hadn't cleared yet. Went into Claim History and saw it update a few days after.

Just the base period — that's the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your claim starts. So roughly the 12-18 months before you filed. Anything older than that doesn't factor into your benefit calculation.

Okay that makes sense. So if I had a really high-paying job three years ago it wouldn't do anything for me now, good to know.

Yep and the flip side is if you had a gap in work during that base period window it could lower your weekly amount since EDD is only looking at wages reported in those quarters.

Okay so I was confusing two separate things — 'excessive earnings' during weekly certification is different from having a high quarterly income that sets your award amount. That actually clears up a lot of the confusion I had.

Exactly. The high Q2 quarter sets your weekly benefit amount (probably to your advantage). The 'excessive earnings' issue only comes into play if you pick up work while you're on a claim and earn more in a given week than your benefit minus that $25-or-25% buffer. Two totally separate calculations.

This distinction should be posted somewhere more prominently honestly. I spent two days worried I was going to get denied because of one good quarter and it was never the issue at all.

No, I haven't done that yet — I didn't even know that was a step. So the CalJOBS registration is separate from just filing the claim on myEDD?

Completely separate. The EDD claim is on myEDD / UI Online. CalJOBS is at caljobs.ca.gov and you create a profile there and upload a resume. EDD sends you the DE 8405 to let you know if you're required to do it.

Worth doing the CalJOBS registration as soon as you get that DE 8405 and not waiting until day 20. The site can be slow and you don't want to miss the deadline scrambling with technical issues.

EDD says it takes about three weeks to process a new application and get the first payment out, so the DE 429Z timing sounds about right. The notice is about what your claim can pay, not a confirmation that EDD has decided you're eligible — people mix those two things up sometimes.

Yeah I thought the DE 429Z meant I was 'approved' and was surprised when I still had to wait for certifications to process. It's more like a summary of your potential benefits.

Good to know it's not an approval letter — I'll keep that in mind so I don't freak out if more steps come after it arrives.

Honestly that's a good question and something I'm not 100% sure about. The employer part of my wages would be reported through payroll taxes no problem, but the freelance 1099 stuff — I need to double check how that gets reported to EDD.

It's worth looking at the wage amounts on your DE 429Z when it comes and comparing them to what you actually earned in that base period. If the numbers look off, you have 30 days from the mailing date to appeal in writing using the DE 1000M or just a letter sent to the address on the notice.

You can also send a message through your UI Online account if you spot a wage discrepancy — that creates a paper trail and sometimes gets resolved without needing to formally appeal.

Nope, that's a common mix-up. The alternate base period kicks in automatically but only when the standard base period doesn't have enough wages to make the claim valid at all. EDD doesn't let you pick the alternate just to get a higher weekly amount if your standard base period already works. It's a fallback, not an upgrade option.

Ohhh so it's not like you get to choose the better one, EDD just uses it as a backup. Good to know, I had been telling people the wrong thing apparently.

Yeah this comes up constantly. The alternate base period saved my claim one time when I had a gap in employment — but once my standard base period had enough wages in another claim, EDD just used that and the alternate didn't come into it.

Yes, a high enough single quarter can push you to the $450 weekly cap. EDD's benefit calculator on their site can give you an estimate before the DE 429Z arrives. With $28k in one quarter you might be right at or near the cap.

Just ran the numbers roughly on EDD's calculator — looks like I'm going to be very close to the max weekly amount. Which is honestly a relief given how uncertain everything felt when I first saw that 'excessive earnings' language online.

That's great news relatively speaking. At $450 a week you'll want to plan your certifications carefully for any weeks you pick up any part-time work, so you're reporting accurately and not accidentally losing a full week's payment.

Your claim actually starts on the Sunday of the week you applied. The first certification usually covers your one-week unpaid waiting period plus the first week of potential payments, so you're certifying for two weeks at once that first time. It tends to come up around two weeks after EDD processes your application.

Got it — so the waiting week is baked into the first certification, it's not like a separate thing you have to deal with on its own.

Yep and the waiting week doesn't eat into your total claim — it's just unpaid, the number of weeks you can collect afterward stays the same.

Any income you earn in a week — W-2, 1099, self-employment, whatever — gets reported when you certify for that week. The earnings are reported for the week they were earned, not when you actually get paid. The same part-time formula applies: first $25 or 25% of gross, whichever is more, isn't counted, and the rest reduces your weekly benefit for that week. Full-time self-employment would end eligibility for that week.

So the type of income doesn't matter, it's just the amount and the hours worked that week. Report it all and let EDD do the math.

This is really important for me since freelance work might pick up again. Good to know I report it in the week I did the work, not when the invoice gets paid — that detail matters.

Not really a readable wage-by-quarter breakdown in UI Online that I've seen — the Claim History section shows payment info and pending weeks, but the detailed wage records come through on the DE 429Z itself. That's really where you'd verify the numbers.

Okay so just waiting for the mail then. Frustrating when you're anxious about whether the high quarter was captured correctly but I guess that's the process.

If you have your old pay stubs or 1099s from the base period, go ahead and compile those now so you're ready to compare them against the DE 429Z the day it arrives. 30-day appeal window goes fast.

Your HR person had it wrong, actually. Severance paid under a company plan or policy isn't counted as wages for unemployment purposes — EDD's own guidance says benefits aren't denied because of severance, whether it's paid as a lump sum or over time. EDD does put it on the list of income to report when you certify, so you report it and EDD decides how to treat it, but you don't have to wait to file. File right away.

Wait seriously?? I've been waiting three weeks thinking I had to. So I lost three weeks I could have already applied?

Your claim starts on the Sunday of the week you apply, so those weeks before you filed unfortunately aren't backdatable just because you were waiting. File now, don't wait another day. And yes, report the severance when you certify — just be accurate about it.

This exact misconception costs people weeks of benefits. HR departments often genuinely don't know UI rules, they just repeat what they've heard. EDD's rules on severance and when to file are on their site.

That's a really useful data point — so even with a mass layoff you don't wait for the company to report it to EDD, you just file and they sort it out?

That's what the agent told me for my specific situation. File first, the employer verification happens as a separate step and doesn't hold up your ability to start the claim.

Makes sense — EDD also notifies the last employer after you file anyway, so the communication goes both directions.

You're right to question it. The DE 429Z shows your weekly benefit amount and the total your claim could pay if you're eligible — but it doesn't mean EDD has decided your eligibility question. If EDD decides you qualify, it just processes the payments for the weeks you certified. If they decide you don't qualify, they send a Notice of Determination (DE 1080CZ) explaining why. No letter comes in the mail to say 'yes you're approved.

So the DE 429Z is more like a 'here's the math if everything checks out' and not a green light. That actually explains why my claim still had pending weeks even after I got it.

Exactly — a lot of people assume once the DE 429Z comes they're in the clear and then are blindsided if adjudication issues come up afterward. The two things are separate.

I'll do that — I've got all my pay stubs and the 1099 from that freelance contract, so I can do a proper comparison. Fingers crossed the numbers line up.

If they don't match, don't panic — it doesn't necessarily mean denial, it might just mean EDD needs more documentation to verify those wages. Act within the 30 days and keep copies of everything you send.

Can you appeal while still certifying? I want to make sure if I ever have a dispute I'm not stopping my certifications waiting for the appeal to resolve.

Absolutely keep certifying through any appeal. EDD can only pay back weeks you actually certified for — if you stop certifying during an appeal and you win, those uncertified weeks are gone.

The Sunday start date thing confused me too at first — I filed on a Thursday and kept thinking my claim started Thursday. Good to know it goes back to that Sunday automatically.

The agent was clear it's always the Sunday regardless of what day you actually file. So you're not losing those few days before you filed within the same week.

If a wage correction changes your highest quarter, yes it could affect your weekly amount and EDD would update it. That's part of why appealing a DE 429Z with wrong wage info matters — the numbers flow through to everything else.

Good to know there's a path to correction if needed. I was worried once the DE 429Z is out it's locked in forever regardless of errors.

The 30-day appeal window is specifically for catching those kinds of issues. After that it gets harder to correct, so checking carefully when the notice arrives is worth the time.