After reading through this thread, I want to emphasize a few important points about your specific situation: 1. The "COVID question" misunderstanding was extremely common and many people have won appeals on this basis. Particularly the question about "refusing work due to COVID concerns" confused thousands of claimants. 2. For your late appeal defense, make sure to emphasize that you attempted to appeal IMMEDIATELY after receiving the determination, not after receiving an overpayment notice. This distinction matters to the hearing officer. 3. Present your evidence in chronological order: determination received on X date, phone attempts on these dates (show call log), email attempts on these dates, and finally when your appeal was accepted. 4. If possible, bring a witness who can testify that they observed your attempts to contact TWC during that period. The fact that your hearing is happening now indicates TWC has at least accepted your appeal for consideration, which is already a positive sign.

Just make sure you dress professionally for the hearing (even if it's over the phone or video) and be SUPER respectful to the hearing officer. My husband won his appeal even though he was like 3 weeks late filing it, but he had documentation showing he tried calling multiple times. The hearing officer was actually pretty understanding about how hard it was to reach TWC during that time. Good luck!

Just to follow up on that earnings reduction - Texas uses a formula where they deduct approximately 75-80% of your reported earnings from your weekly benefit amount. So if you reported $175, they'd reduce your benefit by around $131-140, which matches what you experienced. This is normal and should only affect the week where you reported earnings. Your next payment request should go back to the full amount if you don't report additional earnings.

Correct! The reduction only applies to weeks where you report earnings. Each payment request is calculated independently, so your benefit amount will return to normal for weeks where you don't report income. Just make sure you continue to meet your work search requirements (minimum 3 activities per week) for each payment request.

My cousin's boyfriend had the exactt same thing happen after his factory closed for Baryl. It took them forever to process but he did get paid eventually. The whole system is confusing.. I think he had to call them like 3 times to fix something with his dates tho.

Thank you all for the helpful information! I've made notes about everything. He'll definitely continue with the payment request process and make sure to accurately report his return-to-work date. It's a relief to know this is normal handling for disaster claims. If we don't see any updates in the next week, we might try that Claimyr service to get through to TWC directly. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to explain how this works!

This system is RIGGED against us regular people!!! I swear TWC just automatically sides with employers no matter what evidence you have. I fought an appeal for 5 months only to win and then they STILL took 3 more weeks to resume my payments. The whole thing is designed to make you give up.

I was in a somewhat similar situation with incorrect reporting from an employer. I tried for weeks to get through on the TWC phone lines with no success. I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got connected to a TWC representative in about 15 minutes. The agent was able to review my documentation immediately and flag my case for expedited review since it was clearly an employer reporting error. Saved me potentially months of waiting for the formal appeal. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/V-IMvH88P1U?si=kNxmh025COIlIzKh

I swear the TWC system is DELIBERATELY CONFUSING just to trip people up!!! I had the exact same question last month about my student loan disbursement and spent DAYS trying to figure it out. The payment request just asks "did you work" and "did you earn money" - if it's a LOAN, you didn't EARN it, so logically it shouldn't count! But trying to get a straight answer from TWC is impossible!!

So this is slightly off-topic but when I was dealing with a reporting question like yours, I found it super helpful to check the TWC Claimant Handbook. They have a PDF version on their website that gets into the details of what counts as income. It specifically talks about reportable earnings being from services performed (aka work). Loans definitely don't qualify as that.