How do I cancel my unemployment claim with Texas TWC?

The card showing up without a payment makes sense now, I think they send it preemptively. So if I go back full time Monday and I just don't put in any more payment requests after this current week, the claim just sits there without me having to do anything official?

Yep, that's basically it. Full-time work ending eligibility on the start date is the key thing here, so once Monday hits you're done anyway. Just make sure you report whatever you earned this week if you submit a request for it.

That part about reporting this week's earnings is helpful, I did pick up a few hours of freelance work this week before I knew about the job offer so I definitely need to get that right.

Week three of my own claim here and I've been wanting to reach an agent about a different issue. I'll check that out.

Good to know the agent confirmed that process. I was overthinking it too, thinking there was some formal withdrawal form or something.

Appreciate this, honestly I might still use it just to confirm everything on my end since my situation has a freelance earnings wrinkle I want to make sure I handle right.

So even the week I go back I still need to submit a payment request for that week, just with the job earnings reported? Or can I just skip that one entirely since I'll probably earn more than my benefit amount anyway?

You can skip it if you want, since earning over your weekly benefit amount plus 25 percent means no payment would go out anyway. But some people file it just to have the record of it. Either way, once you're full time the eligibility ends on that start date.

Yeah the math on that makes sense. If your weekly benefit is like $400, you can earn up to $500 that week before you'd get zero. Most people going back to full time are gonna blow past that in a single week.

This is actually a really common mix-up. A lot of people think stopping payment requests closes the whole thing but it doesn't, the claim stays on record. It's good that it works that way though, because if the new job falls through quickly you might still be within your benefit year.

Wait so the claim stays open for a full year from when I filed? That's good to know actually, I hadn't thought about the 'what if the job doesn't work out' scenario.

Right, 52 weeks from the Sunday of the week you applied. So if circumstances change and you lose the job through no fault of your own before that window closes, you could potentially reactivate by just starting to request payments again, as long as you haven't exhausted your maximum benefit amount.

That's exactly what I was worried about. I'm in Harris County so my work search number is five per week and I definitely cannot keep up with that once I'm back in the office full time.

Harris County is five, yeah. But again, once you're back full time and not submitting payment requests, that requirement just doesn't apply to those weeks. You were only ever required to do it for weeks you were claiming benefits.

This is the part that confused me for months honestly. I thought work search was like a probation condition attached to your whole account rather than just the weeks you're asking for money. The way it actually works makes way more sense.

Two and a half hours and then disconnected is genuinely nightmarish. At least the answer turned out to be simple.

Honestly by the time I got disconnected I had already found the answer on twc.texas.gov so it worked out. But yeah, avoid calling unless you have something that actually needs a human to resolve.

Last month I was about six weeks into my claim when I had to call about an adjudication issue and the hold times were brutal. If you do ever need to get through to a real person, claimyr.com got me connected without sitting there redial-looping for half a day.

I had no idea there was a waiting week that could be released after returning to work. I thought it was just permanently gone if you didn't collect enough. This is actually really good to know.

Not permanently gone at all. You need to have been paid two times your weekly benefit amount at some point, and then separately you need to either exhaust benefits or return to full-time work. Both conditions have to be met. If you return to full-time work, you go into UBS and request it. It won't happen automatically.

Wait I thought the waiting week just paid out after the second payment automatically? Or is it only after you request it?

It's not automatic, that's the thing people get wrong. Both conditions need to be met and you have to actually request it. Otherwise it stays in a held state. If you go back to work and forget to do it, that money doesn't come to you on its own.

Going to make a note to do this. I may have already hit the two-payment threshold by the time I start, depending on how quickly my first couple payments process.

This is weirdly reassuring. I've been in a similar position and kept waiting for TWC to send me some kind of 'your claim has been closed' notice that never came.

They don't send one because nothing formally closes. You'd only get a notice if something triggers a review or if you have an outstanding issue on the account.

I haven't received any letters about issues so far, just the approval determination. But this is a good reminder to double-check my UBS account for anything pending before I just walk away.

Worth a quick look at your UBS inbox for sure. Approvals and payment confirmations look different from notices that need a response, and sometimes they get buried.

Also check the correspondence section not just the main dashboard, because some notices show up there even when the main screen looks clean.

Yeah I've seen some posts elsewhere saying to call and officially withdraw the claim and it was making me nervous. Sounds like that's not actually necessary.

Not necessary at all. You could call if you wanted to and an agent would probably just tell you the same thing everyone here is saying. Save yourself the hold time.

Net profit not gross, got it. That's helpful because I did a few hours of consulting this week and wasn't sure how to report it since I haven't been paid yet.

Exactly, the week the work happened is what matters, not when the payment lands in your account. For self-employed work TWC looks at net profit.

This is the part that trips up a lot of freelancers. The timing of when you report it is the week of the work, and the amount is after expenses.

Good to hear it confirmed by an actual agent. The work search requirement was my biggest source of worry about leaving the claim 'open' in some unofficial way.

Yeah, the agent was pretty clear that it's claim-week specific. No payment request for a given week means no work search requirement for that week.

The UBS site really isn't obvious. I'll go check the correspondence section now that I know to look there specifically.

Look at both the inbox and anywhere that shows 'determinations' or 'notices.' The main dashboard shows your balance and payment requests but not necessarily outstanding issues.

The correspondence section is under a tab that isn't front and center, you kind of have to click around. But it's worth finding once so you know where it is.

Good to know about the Thursday-Saturday makeup window, didn't know that existed. For my last week I'll make sure to get it in on time.

The makeup window has saved me once already. Just don't confuse it as an extension of the main window, it's specifically for that same week's request.

Yeah this was clarified a few comments up too, the waiting week requires you to actively request it. I definitely would have missed that if nobody mentioned it.

TWC doesn't remind you to do it either, which is frustrating. It's one of those things where if you don't know to look for it you just never see it.

I stand corrected on that point I raised earlier. I genuinely thought it was automatic after two payments but it clearly requires both conditions and an active request. Good catch.

This is a good final checklist item. I'm going to do a full review of the account tonight before I assume everything is clean.

Look specifically for any notices about your job separation, since that's often where discrepancies show up. If your employer submitted anything that contradicts your application, TWC may have already sent a letter about it.

This thread has genuinely cleared up a lot of confusion for me. The TL;DR seems to be: report any earnings on the last payment request if applicable, check UBS for outstanding issues, and then just stop filing. That's it.

That's exactly it. And look into the waiting week request if you haven't collected enough for it to have released automatically through two payments.

Pretty clean summary. The only thing people often forget is that the benefit year clock is still ticking even when the claim is dormant, so if you need to come back to it later you'd want to do that before the 52-week window from your original filing date closes.