One final piece of advice: Be concise and stick to relevant facts during the hearing. Appeals referees handle many cases daily and appreciate when claimants stay focused. Don't badmouth your former employer or make emotional arguments - stick to the facts about your separation. Regarding overpayments - if you do receive one after losing the appeal, remember you can request a waiver if repayment would cause financial hardship. Don't ignore the notices if that happens, as that can lead to additional penalties. Wishing you the best of luck with your hearing!

I'm going through something similar right now - just got my appeal notice yesterday after waiting 11 weeks for approval. It's terrifying thinking about potentially having to pay back thousands. One thing I learned from calling the UC office is that you can actually request to see your employer's written statement that prompted the appeal. They have to provide their reasoning and any evidence within a certain timeframe. Also, if you do end up losing (which hopefully you won't!), the overpayment notice usually comes with options for payment plans that can be as low as $25/month depending on your financial situation. Hang in there - the fact that you won initially is a good sign that your case has merit.

This exact thing happened to me 3 months ago! I was checking my bank account obsessively for days thinking the system was broken. What's even more frustrating is that the PA UC portal shows "direct deposit" as an option during setup but then quietly defaults to the debit card anyway. One tip that helped me: once you get the Money Network card and activate it, you can actually expedite future payments by calling them and requesting express delivery for replacement cards if yours ever gets lost or damaged. Regular delivery is free but express costs like $15 - might be worth it if you're in a tight spot financially. Also, make sure to save the Money Network customer service number (1-888-659-9085) in your phone. Their hold times are way shorter than trying to reach PA UC directly, and they can at least tell you when payments hit the card and help with transfers to your bank.

I'm dealing with this exact same situation right now! My payment showed up in the portal on Friday with a transaction number, but nothing in my bank account. Reading through all these comments has been a huge relief - I had no idea about the automatic debit card for first payments. Just checked my email and spam folders but haven't found anything from Money Network yet. Question for those who've been through this: if the payment date in the portal was Friday, should I expect the Money Network email to come this week? Also, does the card get sent to the same address you used when filing your claim? We moved recently and I'm worried it might go to our old place. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this forum is literally the only place I've found clear answers about how PA UC actually works!

For future reference, I recommend following the PA Labor & Industry Twitter/X account (@PALaborIndustry) and checking their website announcements section. They usually post system maintenance schedules a few days in advance. They also have an email notification system you can sign up for that will alert you about planned outages.

Thanks for all the helpful info everyone! I'm new to the PA UC system and had no idea about the scheduled maintenance windows. I was panicking when I couldn't log in this morning thinking something was wrong with my account. Really appreciate @Ian Armstrong sharing the Twitter account info - just followed them so I won't be caught off guard next time. The email notification system sounds like a good idea too. It's reassuring to know there's a grace period for technical issues like this!

yea i still won even tho i was a nervous wreck lol. the referee was nice and could tell i was super anxious. he asked questions that helped me tell my side even when i was forgetting stuff. just be honest and ur good

I went through this exact same situation at the Allentown CareerLink last fall! My employer also claimed I quit when I was clearly laid off. Here's what really helped me: organize your evidence chronologically and create a simple timeline of events leading up to your termination. The referee appreciated that I could walk through exactly what happened step by step. Also, if you have any witnesses (coworkers who were also laid off, anyone who heard conversations about budget cuts), see if they can provide written statements or testify by phone. The referee in my case allowed a former coworker to call in and confirm that multiple people were laid off the same day as me. That really sealed the deal! You've got this - having those emails about budget cuts puts you in a really strong position.

For anyone else finding this thread with similar issues - the official PA UC guide for ID.me troubleshooting is actually pretty helpful: https://www.uc.pa.gov/Pages/IDme.aspx (replace this with whatever format is required). Key point they mention that others missed: after verifying with ID.me, you must wait at least 24 hours before logging back into your UC account for the systems to sync properly.

Great to see this got resolved! For future reference, I've also found that using an incognito/private browsing window can help with these ID.me verification loops since it eliminates any cached data conflicts between the two systems. The 24-hour waiting period mentioned by @Harmony Love is crucial - PA's system architecture apparently needs that time to properly sync the verification status between ID.me and their UC database. Definitely bookmark that official troubleshooting page too, it's surprisingly comprehensive once you find it!