PA UC pending for 2 weeks after reporting one day of work - did honest reporting backfire?

You absolutely did the right thing by reporting the work. The system automatically flags claims when there's new employment reported that wasn't part of your initial claim. This is normal. They're just verifying that the work was temporary and doesn't represent ongoing full employment. In my experience, this type of investigation usually resolves within 3-4 weeks. Keep filing your weekly claims in the meantime, accurately reporting any work or no work.

omg same thing happnd to me last month. i took 1 shift covering for a friend and told them about it and my claim got stuck for 3 weeks. its so annoying like why even be honest if thyre gonna punish u for it

This is a standard part of their fraud prevention process. When you report new work, they need to verify a few things: 1. That the work was temporary and not the start of a new job 2. That the amount you reported matches what the employer reports 3. That you're still eligible for benefits despite the income Most people don't realize that employers have to report new hires to the state within a certain timeframe, so they're cross-checking that information. Keep filing your weekly claims while you wait. Just make sure you're accurately reporting any work/earnings each week.

I think we've all been there! The system is designed to catch people trying to work full-time while collecting benefits. The downside is it catches honest people in the same net. Just keep filing each week and eventually they'll release all the held payments at once when they clear the investigation.

I HAD THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!! Worked ONE DAY at a temp job, reported it, and my claim went into review for almost a MONTH!!! The PA UC system is broken and they don't care how many people suffer waiting for their money. I called EVERY DAY for two weeks straight and either got busy signals or was hung up on after waiting forever. It's a COMPLETE JOKE that they expect people to survive while they take their sweet time "investigating" a single day of work!

When I was dealing with this exact situation last year, I tried for weeks to get through to a rep with no luck. Kept getting busy signals or disconnected after waiting on hold forever. I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to someone at PA UC within 30 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2 The rep I spoke with was able to look at my claim and manually remove the hold since it was obviously just a single shift and not regular employment. Got my payment the next day. Totally worth it when you're stuck in investigation limbo.

Update: I finally got through to someone at UC after 3 days of non-stop calling. They said the investigation was triggered because the employer I worked for that one day hadn't reported my wages yet to the state. The rep was able to process an override since it was clear from my work history that this was just a one-off shift. Payment should be released within 48 hours. Lesson learned: reporting odd jobs can cause major delays, but not reporting them could lead to fraud accusations later. Still better to be honest even though it's frustrating.

My cousin's friend had this happen and it turned out his old job was contesting his unemployment entirely which is why they froze everything. Might not be about the one day of work at all, could be your regular employer causing issues?

For anyone dealing with this in the future: The key thing with temporary or one-off work is to make sure you indicate in the weekly claim that this is NOT a return to full-time work. There's a question specifically asking if you've returned to full-time work - make sure you answer 'No' if that's the case. Sometimes the investigation is triggered because of how those questions were answered rather than the fact that you worked at all.

This is exactly why the UC system needs reform. You did everything right by reporting honestly, but the system punishes people for transparency. I went through something similar last year - picked up two days of freelance work and reported it properly, then waited 5 weeks for them to "investigate" $150 in earnings. The frustrating part is they give you no timeline or updates during the process. You just have to keep filing weekly claims and hope they eventually release everything. At least you got it resolved! For others reading this, definitely keep calling daily if you're stuck - persistence is unfortunately the only way to get through to someone who can actually help.