PA UC forced second claim after one-day gig job - now stuck in new waiting week

omg this EXACT same thing happened to me back in march!! I picked up a 2-day convention job and suddenly had to file a whole new claim. The PA UC system is seriously messed up. It took me 3 weeks to get my benefits flowing again and I never got a straight answer about why it happened. Good luck!!!

There's actually a specific threshold for earnings that triggers a new claim. In PA, if you earn 6x your weekly benefit rate from a single employer, the system automatically considers it substantial employment and requires a new claim. The system doesn't distinguish between permanent or temporary work unfortunately. You mentioned earning $510 from the bartending gig - if your WBR is under $85, this would've triggered the new application requirement. It's not a mistake in how you reported it, it's actually how the system is designed to work.

ya this is normal. happened 2 me 2. just wait it out

The rule that's affecting you is actually in the PA UC handbook, but it's poorly explained. When you work for any employer and earn over a certain threshold (as the other commenter mentioned - 6x your WBR), the system treats it as if you've had a new period of employment that ended. You have two options here: 1. Wait for the new claim to process - yes, you'll have a waiting week, but your benefits should resume after that 2. Call the UC office to explain that this was a one-time gig and see if they can override the system I had to deal with this last year when I did a week-long temp job. I was finally able to reach someone at UC after using Claimyr (claimyr.com) - they have a service that gets you through to an actual PA UC agent usually within an hour instead of trying to call for days. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2 The agent was able to fix my claim once I explained the situation. Hope this helps!

I worked as a UC examiner for 3 years (quit last year thank goodness lol). This is 100% normal system behavior when you report earnings above the threshold. The biggest issue is most claimants don't realize that taking even short-term work can restart the whole claim process. Here's what's actually happening behind the scenes: When you report substantial earnings from a new employer, the system HAS to verify that you're still eligible for benefits after this new employment. It treats it as a new qualifying separation. Your best bet is to call and explain. An examiner can expedite your case since it's just a simple verification that the work was temporary. Don't wait for it to resolve on its own.

ok but im confused why doesn't the system jus ask if its temporary??? seems like such a simple fix??

I actually just went through this whole mess last month! I used that Claimyr service someone mentioned above to get through to UC (after trying to call for 4 days straight with no luck). The rep explained that temp work above a certain amount triggers a new claim but they can flag it for expedited processing. My benefits restarted after only 10 days instead of weeks. Definitely worth trying to reach someone rather than just waiting.

Yes! They ended up removing the waiting week once they processed everything correctly. But you HAVE to talk to someone - it won't fix itself automatically.

One more thing to be aware of: make sure when you do reach someone, you ask them to notate that this was a single day of work. Otherwise, when they process the new claim, they'll send a questionnaire to the employer asking about your separation reason, and that can delay things even further as they might not respond quickly (or at all for a single-day gig).

Has anyone had luck getting through by using the chat feature on the website instead of calling? I tried that route once but got disconnected after waiting 40 minutes...

UPDATE: I finally got through to someone! Used the Claimyr service mentioned above and got connected in about 35 minutes. The agent confirmed everything you all said - the one-day job triggered a new claim because I earned over 6x my weekly benefit rate. She was able to expedite my claim processing and marked it as a "special handling case" due to it being just temporary work. She said I should see my benefits resume within 7-10 days and YES they will backdate and remove the waiting week requirement since this shouldn't have been processed as a completely new claim. Thanks everyone for the help! This forum saved me from weeks of stress.