Why haven't I got my unemployment payment yet? California EDD claim not paying

My inbox in UI Online doesn't show any notices at all. And I was laid off, not fired or anything, so I didn't think there'd be a whole review process. Could my employer have said something to trigger this?

EDD does notify your last employer when you file, and the employer has 10 days to respond. Even in a straight layoff, if the employer puts anything in that response that raises a question, EDD can flag the claim for review. Usually a phone interview would follow, but sometimes it just sits. Keep checking UI Online and watch your mail for a DE 4800.

the de 429z is NOT an approval letter, so many people think it means they're good to go and then wonder why nothing comes. edd still has to decide eligibility separately

I did do ID.me when I first applied but honestly I'm not sure if I completed the whole thing. Going to log back in and check that the photo verification actually went through. This might be exactly what's going on.

ID.me tripped me up the same way. I thought uploading the ID was enough but there's a liveness check step after that most people skip by accident. Once I finished it the pending weeks updated within about three days.

Looked into Claimyr after reading this, my situation is different but I also can't get through to anyone and I need to ask about a DE 1080CZ I got in the mail.

the id.me thing is a nightmare honestly, it's like they designed it specifically to make people fail the verification and then never tell them they failed

I answered yes to all of that. I've been applying to places and keeping notes on where I applied. That part I'm pretty sure I did right.

That's good. EDD doesn't require you to submit your work search records during certification, but having them written down matters if they ever audit it. Sounds like the work search piece isn't the holdup then.

wait does edd actually audit work search stuff randomly? I've been certifying but didn't realize they could just ask you to prove it later

I've been calling around 10am and getting nowhere. Going to try the 8am approach tomorrow.

8am sharp on a Tuesday or Wednesday, skip Mondays because everyone calls Monday. Even then it's not guaranteed but it's way better odds than midday.

Mondays are genuinely brutal at EDD's phone lines. After a weekend of people getting notices in the mail, everyone calls Monday morning. Tuesday or Wednesday early is real advice.

I did not get any letter about CalJOBS. At least I don't think so. Would it have come at the same time as the DE 429Z?

Not necessarily, it comes separately and doesn't always arrive at the same time. It's called the DE 8405 and it has the deadline printed on it. Worth looking back through any EDD mail you got. If you haven't registered yet and the deadline has passed, registering now is still better than not doing it, and you should let EDD know.

I totally missed my CalJOBS deadline the first time I was on unemployment and my payments stopped cold. Had to call and explain the situation. Got it sorted but it was two extra weeks before money came through.

You read it right. Every claim starts with a one-week unpaid waiting period, served on the first eligible week. So your first certification usually includes that unpaid waiting week and then one week that actually pays. It doesn't reduce what your claim can pay total, it's just one week that serves as the waiting period before benefits start.

okay that makes me feel a little better, I thought I had filled something out wrong. so now I just need to certify again at the two week mark?

Exactly, certify again at the two-week mark and that covers the next two eligible weeks. UI Online will show when your next certification window opens.

How much notice did you get before the interview? Like did the letter arrive with only a couple of days warning?

Mine came with about eight days notice before the scheduled time. The interviewer phoned at the exact time printed on the notice. I just kept my phone close that morning.

the phone interview really isn't what people build it up to be. you just explain your side of the separation honestly. for a clean layoff it's usually very quick

Didn't know the chat was a thing. Going to try that tomorrow morning first since the phone has been useless for me.

The chat agents can see your account the same way phone agents can. They can tell you if there's a flag, an open issue, or a missing document. Much easier than sitting on hold.

edd chat saved me probably four hours of hold time last month when my direct deposit info needed updating. way underused feature

No severance, I was let go with nothing extra. So that's not it at least.

Good, one less thing to worry about. Sounds like your situation is pretty clean, which makes the Pending status even more frustrating because there's no obvious reason for it.

Oh that's a good point. I did activate it when it came in the mail but that's worth double-checking. UI Online shows the balance too right?

UI Online shows payment status and amounts under the Payments section but I don't think it shows the card balance directly. The Money Network card has its own number on the back for balance checks.

The card situation confused me too. EDD sends the card before you even get paid so there's this window where you have an active card with zero balance and you just have to wait.

How did you find that out? Did they just tell you when you finally got through on the phone?

Yeah, eventually got through to an agent who looked at the claim and explained the wage discrepancy. There was nothing I could do about it on my end, just had to wait for EDD's records to sync with the employer's filing.

employer wage records causing delays is way more common than edd lets on. and the claimant has no way to speed that up at all

Yes I've been keeping up with certifications. Certified my second round two days ago and those weeks also show Pending now.

Good. Keep doing exactly that. And if an appeal ever becomes necessary down the road for any reason, those certified weeks are what EDD can pay retroactively once a decision goes in your favor.

this is so important and so many people don't know it. certify during any dispute or appeal, you can't go back and certify weeks you missed

Messages through UI Online actually get read? I sent one three weeks ago and heard nothing.

EDD's response time on UI Online messages varies a lot but they do get read. Sometimes faster than the phone line if your issue doesn't need an immediate answer. Might be worth following up if yours has been sitting that long.

UI Online messages are good for paper trails even if the response is slow. If you ever need to appeal anything, having a written record of when you raised an issue helps.

I've been clicking around in there but it's just showing Pending with nothing else. No additional detail at all.

Yeah sometimes it really does just say Pending and nothing more. When that happens the only way to get a real answer is an agent. The lack of transparency is genuinely one of the most frustrating parts of this whole system.

why doesn't edd just send an email or a notification when something is holding up a payment instead of making everyone play detective

Has that actually worked for you? Getting kicked and redialing?

More than once, yes. It's annoying but better than waiting 45 minutes to reach the front and then getting disconnected there.

The 30-day clock on appeals is real and it starts from the mailing date on the notice, not when you received it. Good that you moved fast on that.

The agent was very clear about the mailing date being what matters, not the postmark on when I got it. I had about 18 days left at that point.

Appeals go to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board after EDD reviews them. Making sure the postmark on your appeal letter is well before the 30-day mark gives you some cushion.

Couldn't agree more. The information asymmetry is brutal. EDD knows exactly what's happening with your claim and you have to call, wait, get disconnected, repeat just to find out there was a simple flag that could have been explained in an email.

and then when you DO get through, it takes the agent 90 seconds to explain what's been holding your claim for three weeks. the information was sitting there the whole time

the only upside is that once it's resolved, the back payments for all the pending weeks usually come through together

My DE 429Z shows $310 a week and when I ran it through EDD's calculator that matched up with what I earned at the warehouse. So I don't think there's a wage records problem on my end at least.

That's one less thing to worry about then. Sounds like the most likely culprits are the ID.me verification or the CalJOBS registration based on this thread.

Matching up the calculator with the DE 429Z is a smart step. If those numbers ever diverge, that's a signal to appeal the award notice within 30 days of the mailing date.

This is really helpful to hear. Logging into ID.me tonight to check the whole process step by step. And going to try the Tuesday 8am call if that doesn't fix it.

Make sure you get all the way through to the liveness check step in ID.me. That was the step that had an error on mine and there was nothing in the ID.me app that told me it hadn't gone through.

The liveness check is a video selfie that ID.me takes while you move your head slowly. If there's poor lighting or you move too fast it can fail silently. Redoing it in a well-lit spot fixed mine.