Can I cancel my unemployment claim online? Texas TWC options explained

That's a relief actually, I was imagining I'd have to sit on hold for hours to get this resolved. So I just stop doing the payment requests and that's it?

Basically yes. The claim stays in the system but it won't affect anything if you're not drawing on it. Your new employer won't even know you filed, that's not how it works.

Good to know about the employer thing, that was my main worry honestly.

Oh I had no idea the benefit year worked that way. So the claim just sits there available to me for a year basically?

That's right. The Sunday of the week you applied kicks off that 52 week window. It's not like it expires the moment you go back to work.

This is genuinely useful, I stopped requesting payments when I got a temp position and had no clue I could've restarted if the assignment ended.

Mine seems pretty straightforward so sounds like I don't need to call, but good to know that option exists for the more complicated situations.

My severance situation is also tangled up right now, I might try that for my own call.

The severance piece does add complexity. TWC can stop benefits during certain types of severance payments so getting that clarified by an agent makes sense.

So you do still submit the final payment request for the week you were still unemployed? I want to make sure I don't miss out on what I'm actually owed for the two weeks before this job starts.

Yes, definitely still request payment for any week you were actually unemployed and eligible. You report any earnings for the week your job starts (just the days you actually worked that week, using the gross amount) and TWC calculates what you're owed for the partial week if anything.

The earnings reporting piece is important - it's gross pay, not what hits your bank account after taxes, and you report it for the week the work was done not when you get paid.

The waiting week isn't lost forever just from going back to work. TWC holds that first payable week and pays it out once you've received payments totaling twice your weekly benefit amount AND either return to full time work or use up all your benefits. If you go back to full time work you have to actually request it though - in UBS there's a spot for it, or you can do it through Tele-Serv.

Wait so I have to actively request it even after I go back to work? It doesn't just automatically come through?

Correct, you have to request it. In UBS it shows up as a separate option, or on Tele-Serv it's option 2 then option 4. Neither condition alone triggers it - you need both the payment history requirement met AND either the full time job or benefits exhausted.

That would have been easy to miss, I had no idea there was an extra step for that.

The partial week earnings thing tripped me up. You report gross earnings for the week the work happened, even if your paycheck comes the following Friday.

Exactly. And it's the Sunday-Saturday week that matters, not your employer's pay period.

That's exactly where I was mentally. I kept imagining I had to find some specific form or make an appointment or something.

The TWC system is confusing enough when it IS complicated, so when something turns out to be simple it feels suspicious lol.

Right, the simplicity feels like a trap.

How many activities per week are required? I've been in Harris County so I've been doing five but I want to make sure that was right.

Five per week is correct for Harris County. Each county's local Workforce Development Board sets the number and TWC mails you a letter with yours specifically. Yours was set right.

Travis County is also five per week. I didn't know it varied by county until I read my letter carefully.

The 'it's a record not a subscription' framing actually helps me think about it differently.

Yeah once I stopped thinking of it like something that needed to be formally closed it made a lot more sense.

Same mental shift happened for me. The confusion is understandable though because a lot of online stuff talks about 'closing' or 'canceling' claims as if there's a button for it.

Got mine around day ten or eleven after applying. It tells you the specific date you can submit your first payment request, which is usually about one to two weeks after you apply.

Okay so mine should be coming any day then. I've been checking UBS daily but I'll keep watching the mail too.

Check UBS and Tele-Serv both. TWC updates overnight so something might show in the system before the paper letter gets to you.

Benefits you receive don't count as wages for base period purposes. The base period for any future claim would look at actual W-2 wages from employers during the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before that future claim's start date. The UI payments themselves aren't wages in that calculation.

Makes sense, they're not wages so they wouldn't show up in a wage calculation. Got it.

Came here to say the same thing. Gross, not net. And report the week you worked it even if the paycheck comes later.

The rounding down part is a small detail but it is what TWC says to do - round down to the nearest dollar, not round normally.

Can you explain the 25 percent threshold part? I want to make sure I don't accidentally mess up my last payment request.

So your weekly benefit amount is whatever TWC calculated for you. You can earn up to 25 percent of that in a week with zero reduction to your payment. Earn more than that 25 percent and TWC subtracts the overage from your payment. Earn more than your weekly amount plus that 25 percent and you get nothing for that week. So if your weekly amount was say $400, you could earn $100 with no effect, but earning $150 would reduce your $400 payment by $50.

Oh that's cleaner than I expected. So starting mid-week I might still get a partial UI payment for that week depending on how many hours I work.

Exactly. Report honestly and let TWC do the math - that's really all you need to do.

The severance question is definitely worth getting answered directly by an agent before you stop requesting. Some types of severance stop benefits during the period they cover and TWC mails a decision on yours specifically - it varies.

That's exactly my concern, I want to know where I stand before my last payment request.

Your WorkInTexas.com registration stays active regardless, that's separate from your payment requests. If you go back to work and your job ends again later within that benefit year, you'd want your profile current so you can jump back in without delays.

Okay good, I'll keep it updated. Wasn't sure if TWC automatically deactivated everything the moment you stopped requesting.

Right, TWC works on Sunday-to-Saturday weeks, completely separate from whatever your employer's pay period is. If you get paid bi-weekly that pay period might span across two different TWC claim weeks, so you'd split out the earnings by the week they were earned, not when the whole paycheck drops.

That would have caused me problems if I hadn't caught it. My employer pays every two weeks on Fridays.

Super common situation. Just divide it out by which days fell in which Sunday-Saturday week and report accordingly. Gross, not net.

It catches a lot of people off guard. The key requirements are that you've been paid an amount equal to twice your weekly benefit amount AND that you either return to full time work or run out of benefits entirely. Both conditions have to be met, and then you have to actually go in and request it.

So if someone got laid off again after two months they'd want to check whether both those conditions are met before assuming they lost it.

Exactly. It's not automatically gone just because you stopped requesting payments.

I hadn't thought about the tax piece at all. I didn't elect withholding when I applied. For just two weeks of benefits is it worth worrying about or is it a small enough amount that it won't matter much?

Depends on your weekly benefit amount and your overall tax situation for the year. For two weeks it's probably a manageable amount either way, but just make sure you account for it when you file. The 1099-G will show up in January.

Didn't know benefits were federally taxable. Learned something new from this thread.

Thanks, I feel a lot better about all of this now. Going to submit my request for the last partial week before my start date, report my earnings accurately for the first week I work, and then just let the claim go dormant. Way simpler than I feared.

That's the right play. Keep that work search log too just in case TWC asks about it later.

Claimyr is there if something complicated comes up and you need to actually get a live person on the phone - saves a lot of time versus the standard TWC call line.