They sent me a letter with the interview date/time about 2 weeks after my claim got flagged. The whole thing took about 5-6 weeks to resolve completely. And yes, I still had to call in to do the interview - they don't call you, you have to call them at the scheduled time using a special number they give you in the letter.

UPDATE: I finally got through to PA UC today! Used the Claimyr service someone mentioned and it worked great. The agent was actually really understanding. She said this happens a lot and is considered a "non-willful" error since I genuinely didn't know I had to report unpaid work. They're sending me a questionnaire about the 2-day position that I need to fill out and return. My benefits are on hold until that's processed, but she said as long as I get it back quickly, I should only have a small overpayment for those 2 days I worked (about $82) that I'll need to pay back. Thank you everyone for the help and for calming me down! I was seriously panicking thinking I'd lose everything or get charged with fraud over an honest mistake.

my cousin works at a place that closed and they all got denied cause the employer said they were fired not laid off even tho the whole place shut down!!! make SURE they put the right reason for separation or you'll have to appeal

oh yeah and get ready for the waiting week! your first week u don't get paid!! that really sucked for me cause I didn't know

My sister works for unemployment (not in PA but another state) and she says theyre all SUPER backlogged right now!! She said never expect anything to happen when they say it will...always add at least 2-3 weeks to whatever timeline they give you and you'll be less disappointed!! Good luck!!!!

One other recommendation - keep filing your weekly certifications even while waiting for the determination. If your claim is eventually approved, you'll get retroactive payments for all properly filed weeks. If you stop filing during this waiting period, you may lose benefits for those weeks.

anyone else think its weird that they make these hearings at such specific times but dont have any flexibility for real life? like some of us have kids and jobs and traffic exists lol. 9 minutes is nothing, they should have still let you in. the whole system feels like its designed to deny as many people as possible.

UPDATE: I filed the Request for Reopening form today and also used Claimyr to get through to an actual UC rep! The rep confirmed they received my written statement from yesterday and said they would attach it to my file. She said the referee will likely issue a decision on my original case within 7-10 days, but I should still be prepared to appeal if it goes against me. Thanks everyone for the help - will post another update when I hear something!

Typical PA unemployment... system always breaks right when people need it most! I've been dealing with these glitches since January and EVERY SINGLE TIME something goes wrong with my claim. Anyone notice how these "outages" always happen right when payment processing would normally occur? Pretty convenient for them to hold onto our money an extra day or two if you ask me. 🙄

I just remembered this happened to me back in December too. I panicked and tried logging in like 50 times which was dumb because then my account got flagged for suspicious activity lol. Had to reset my whole PIN and everything. So word of advice don't spam the login button like I did!!