PA UC hearing decision wording - does this mean my benefits are approved?

YES! This is excellent news for you! The wording is definitely confusing with the legal jargon, but this means your benefits have been approved. The referee found that your employer failed to prove "willful misconduct" (which is what they need to show to deny your benefits). When they say "not ineligible" it's a double negative that means you ARE eligible. Since your employer didn't even show up to the hearing, they couldn't present evidence against you. The money should start flowing within the next payment cycle, but I would keep checking your dashboard to make sure it's processed correctly.

pretty sure that means u won ur case but PA UC always uses weird language like that. i got something similar last yr

This is definitely a positive result! When they say "not ineligible" it's legal language that actually means you ARE eligible. The key part is that they found no evidence of willful misconduct, which is what would disqualify you from benefits. A few important things to know: 1. Your employer has 15 days to appeal this decision 2. You should see payments within 2-3 business days for all back weeks 3. You need to have been filing your weekly claims this whole time If you haven't been filing weekly claims during this appeal process, contact UC immediately to see if you can backdate them.

the double negatives in these decisions always confused me too lol. but yeah "not ineligible" = eligible. congrats! your employer not showing up really worked in your favor

I had to call PA UC about 50 times before I could get through to ask about the exact same confusing language after my hearing. The woman told me that it can take up to 3 weeks for payments to start flowing after a decision like this. If you're still not seeing any activity by then, you might want to try Claimyr (claimyr.com) - they got me through to an actual agent in under an hour when I'd been trying for days. They have a video demo too: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2. It's what finally got my back payments processed after my successful appeal.

BE CAREFUL!!!! My decision said something similar but then my employer appealed it and I had to go through the whole process again at the Board level. Don't spend that money until you're SURE the appeal window has closed! The UC system is designed to trick us!!!

i got tricked by that same exact wording last year when i got fired for "performance issues" that they couldn't prove! turned out they never documented anything and the ref ruled in my favor too. took me about a week to get paid all my backpay from the weeks that were on hold. felt soooo good to see all that money hit my account at once! congrats!!!

Just to add some clarity on next steps: you should continue filing your weekly claims as normal. Once the decision is fully processed, your status should change from "appeal pending" or similar to "benefits payable." Sometimes there can be a delay depending on what day of the week your biweekly payment normally falls. For example, if your regular payment date would be this Thursday, but the decision wasn't processed until Friday, you might not see payment until the following Thursday. But the good news is you SHOULD receive all back payments for weeks properly claimed during the appeal process!

One more thing to watch out for - make sure you check your payment method is set correctly. A lot of people win appeals but then find out their Money Network card expired or their direct deposit info changed. You don't want any more delays after waiting this long!