10 weeks of ESD benefits approved by judge but no payments - how to contact ANYONE?

omg same boat here!!! my partner's been waiting since january for 6 weeks of payments after winning an appeal. its like they purposely make it impossible to reach anyone!! so frustrating

When the judge rules in your favor, ESD should process the payment within 30 days, but there's often a secondary review that happens after OAH decisions. The trick is to contact the Office of Administrative Hearings directly rather than ESD. Call the OAH at 360-407-2700 and ask for the status of the implementation of your husband's appeal decision. Make sure you have the docket number from the appeal paperwork ready. They can often nudge ESD to process the payment since they have direct contacts there. Also, be sure to keep filing weekly claims during this waiting period even though they show as "pending" - failure to file even one week can reset parts of the process.

just so u know the "30 days" thing is more like a suggestion to ESD not a rule they actually follow 🙄 took me 11 weeks after my hearing to get paid even tho i won. try emailing unemployment.help@esd.wa.gov with URGENT in the subject line and include ur SSN and claim ID in the email. sometimes that works

I was stuck in a similar situation last month with 8 weeks of approved benefits that weren't being paid. After struggling to get anyone on the phone for weeks, I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got through to an ESD agent in about 25 minutes. The agent was able to see that my payments were stuck in some kind of administrative review queue after the appeal and manually pushed them through. Within 3 days the money was in my account. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 It was honestly a lifesaver for me since we were about to miss our car payment.

I've been through the ESD appeal process twice, and both times there was a significant delay between winning the appeal and receiving payment. Here's what worked for me: 1. Contact your state representative's office. They have constituent services staff who can escalate your case. You can find yours here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/ 2. Document everything in writing. Send a formal email to unemployment.help@esd.wa.gov referencing the specific OAH decision number, date of decision, and citing WAC 192-04-190 which requires prompt payment after favorable decisions. 3. Be persistent but professional in all communications. Mention financial hardship specifically if applicable. 4. If you've already waited more than 30 days post-decision, mention in your communications that you're considering filing a petition for enforcement with the superior court (which is an option under RCW 34.05.578, though hopefully you won't need to go that far). In my experience, the state rep intervention is what finally broke the logjam. Good luck!

ESD HAS BEEN DOING THIS FOREVER!!! They delay payments even after judges order them to pay hoping people will just give up. It's criminal what they do to people who are already struggling. I waited 14 weeks after winning my appeal before I saw a dime. The system is BROKEN BY DESIGN. Don't let them wear you down.

Update: I want to thank everyone for their advice! I took several of your suggestions: 1. Called the OAH number and they confirmed our appeal should have been implemented weeks ago 2. Emailed unemployment.help with URGENT in the subject line and included all our claim details 3. Used Claimyr to finally get through to an actual person at ESD The agent I spoke with was actually very helpful once I got through. She said our payment was stuck because the appeal decision required manual processing of back payments, and it was sitting in a review queue. She escalated it while I was on the phone. This morning I checked our account and ALL 10 WEEKS have been processed for payment! They should be in our account by Monday. I'm so relieved I could cry. For anyone else stuck in appeal limbo - persistence and using multiple channels simultaneously seems to be the key. Thanks again everyone.