PA UC reopened claim after surgery - do I serve another waiting week?

Generally speaking, you don't have to serve another waiting week within the same benefit year. The waiting week is only a one-time thing when you first establish your benefit year. As long as you're reopening within the same benefit year (which is typically 52 weeks from when you first applied), you should start receiving benefits for the first eligible week you claim after reopening. Just make sure you complete your bi-weekly certifications on time!

just went thru this last month when i had a family emergency. no waiting week when u reopen as long as its same benefit year. u get paid for first week

Are you absolutely SURE you properly reopened the claim and not accidentally filed a new one??? This happened to me and I ended up with a mess that took FOREVER to fix!!! The system is so confusing and if you file a new claim instead of reopen you WILL have another waiting week AND possibly create an eligibility issue they'll need to investigate which can freeze everything for weeks!!!!!

You can verify if you properly reopened by logging into your dashboard and checking your claim status. If it shows the same benefit year start date as your original claim (from January), then you did it correctly. If you see a new benefit year start date of April 2025, then you may have accidentally filed a new claim instead of reopening.

dont worry about wating week but whatch out for job serch requiremetns, u need to do those even when recovering from surgery I think and if you didnt do them for 8 weeks they mite deny ur benefits for those weeks ur supposed to do at least 3 job searchs each week

I had a similar situation back in February when I had to stop claiming for 6 weeks due to a temporary job. When I tried getting through to someone at UC to confirm everything was done correctly after reopening, I spent THREE DAYS hitting redial. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to a UC rep in about 30 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2. Totally worth it to get confirmation directly from UC rather than stressing about whether I did something wrong.

make sure ur reporting any part time work u might be doing during recovery if ur doing any light duty or work from home stuff. they check with employers

I went through this exact scenario last year after breaking my leg. The waiting week is only applied once per benefit year, so you won't have another one. However, since you mentioned surgery, make sure you answer the weekly certification questions correctly regarding your ability to work. If you indicate you weren't able and available for work due to medical reasons, you might be denied for those weeks. Only start claiming once you're medically cleared to work! Also, you'll need to restart your work search activities - make sure you're completing and documenting at least 3 work search activities per week. The PA UC system has been really strict about this lately.

Waiting weeks are THE WORST!!! I had an issue last year where they made me serve TWO waiting weeks because of some glitch in their system and it took me filing an appeal to get it fixed which took FOREVER and I almost got evicted while waiting!!!! The UC system is completely BROKEN!!!!

Update: Just wanted to thank everyone for the help! I claimed my first week yesterday and got confirmation that payment has been processed - no waiting week required! Such a relief. For anyone in a similar situation, just make sure you definitely hit "reopen" rather than starting a new claim, and double-check that your benefit year start date hasn't changed. Thanks again for all the advice!