Unexpected EDD money network card arrived - 2025 payments for unpaid 2021 claim?

WAIT THIS EXACT THING JUST HAPPENED TO MY COUSIN!!! She got a card last week with money from like 2021-2022 that she never got paid for. Something about them reviewing old claims and finding ones that slipped through the cracks. She was freaking out thinking it was fraud at first but when she finally got through to EDD they told her it was legit back payments they owed her!

hmm interesting... did u ever appeal the original denial from 2021? sometimes they take FOREVER to process appeals and backpay

This is actually part of the EDD's 2024-2025 Retroactive Payment Initiative. They're reviewing claims from 2020-2022 where legitimate claimants may have been incorrectly denied or had payments stuck in pending status during the high-volume pandemic period. If your UI Online account shows these as conditional payments from your 2021 claim, it's likely legitimate. These conditional payments are being issued while they complete the final review of your claim. They should become permanent unless they find a specific eligibility issue. I'd recommend: 1. Print or screenshot all payment details from UI Online 2. Call EDD to confirm these payments are legitimate (though getting through is tough) 3. Check if there are any outstanding certification weeks you need to complete 4. Verify your new Money Network card is activated properly This is happening to thousands of claimants right now as part of this initiative.

activate that card FAST!! i got one last month for back payments and it took forever to get it working bc they have some weird verification thing now. but once it worked the money was there and totally legit!

I'd be super careful with this. My dad got what he thought were legitimate back payments last month, spent the money, and then got a notice saying it was an error and now he owes EDD $4,800! The whole system is designed to confuse people and then punish them for the EDD's own mistakes. I'd call and get written confirmation before spending a single dollar.

I went through this exact situation in February! It's part of a court settlement that forced EDD to review old claims where people didn't get proper consideration during the pandemic chaos. Mine was from August 2021 and I received about $5,700 in back payments for weeks that were stuck in pending for years. Definitely keep documentation of everything, but this is likely legitimate. One thing to note - these payments might affect your 2025 taxes depending on how much you receive, so set aside some of it for tax season just to be safe. If you need to verify it's legitimate, I know calling EDD is nearly impossible these days. I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through after trying for days on my own. They have a service that helps you bypass the busy signals and actually connects you with an EDD representative. There's a video demo here that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/JmuwXR7HA10?si=TSwYbu_GOwYzt9km. It was worth it for me just to get confirmation that my payment was legitimate and not going to be reversed later.

Same thing happened to me! Got a new Money Network card and found out I was getting paid for my 2021 claim. Called EDD (took forever to get through) and they confirmed it was legitimate. The rep said they're working through a backlog of claims that weren't properly processed during the pandemic. Something about a system audit and a legal mandate to review claims. Just watch out - my payments were initially labeled as "conditional" which the rep explained meant they could still be reversed if they found eligibility issues during their final review. After about 2 weeks, they changed to regular payments though.

wait i'm confused are these from regular UI or the pandemic PUA thing??? i thought all those special programs ended years ago

OMG make sure you check your address on the account!!! My back payments got sent to my old address from 4 years ago and it was a NIGHTMARE getting it fixed. Log into UI Online right now and update all your contact info just to be safe!!!

Honestly this whole thing just shows how broken the entire unemployment system is. They make people wait FOUR YEARS to get money they were entitled to during one of the worst economic crises ever, and we're supposed to be grateful? People lost homes, went into debt, and destroyed their credit while waiting for these payments that EDD was legally required to provide. And now they just drop money on you with no explanation or apology. The entire department needs to be investigated and overhauled.

This is actually really encouraging to hear! I filed for unemployment in September 2021 and got stuck in the dreaded "pending" status for what felt like forever. Eventually gave up after months of trying to get through to someone who could help. Never thought I'd see that money but now I'm wondering if I should check my UI Online account to see if anything similar happened with my claim. Did you have to do anything special to reactivate your account or was the payment activity just automatically showing up when you logged in?