Question for anyone who's done this - do I need to have my claim ID and social security number ready when I call the governor's office? And do they transfer you directly to someone at ESD or do they take your info and have ESD call you back? Just want to be prepared when I call.

my friend works at esd and says they hate getting these govnr office escalations bcuz it makes them drop everything else. but yeah if ur desperate i guess do what u gotta do. just sayin theres real people trying their best on the other side too

Make sure u record the hearing if they let u!!! My friend didn't and regretted it when the employer lied about stuff. Also be ready for them to twist things around and make it sound like you were a bad employee. They always do that. Stay calm even when they lie - the judges can usually tell who's being honest.

dont 4get that the fact they tried to get u back THREE TIMES is super important!!!! it proves they didnt actually want u to quit and that ur performance wasnt bad. if ur performance was so bad they needed to PIP u, why would they beg u to come back?? makes no sense and the judge will see that!!

One more option to consider is reaching out through the ESD website's technical support contact form (not the regular eServices messaging). Sometimes technical support can escalate issues to claims specialists when they see patterns of problems. Be sure to include: 1. Your claim ID 2. The exact dates of all pending weeks 3. Any error messages you've received 4. Screenshots of your claim status page if possible Also, when did you last verify your identity through ID.me? Sometimes claims get stuck when ID verification expires, even if you previously verified successfully.

Based on everything you've shared, this sounds like your claim might be stuck in the automated adjudication queue. With the information you've provided, here's what I'd recommend in order of effectiveness: 1. Continue with the state representative outreach you've already started 2. Visit WorkSource in person (call first to confirm they have ESD staff as others suggested) 3. If those don't work within a week, consider a service like Claimyr that another user mentioned - many people in this forum have reported success with it 4. As a last resort, you can request an official appeal of your pending status, which forces ESD to review your claim, but this can sometimes take even longer Hang in there, and please update us on what ends up working for you!

One more important thing to consider: if you do quit, continue filing weekly claims while your eligibility is being determined, even though you won't receive benefits immediately. If you're eventually approved through adjudication or appeal, you'll get back payments for all those weeks you properly filed. If you wait to start filing weekly claims until after approval, you won't get paid for those missed weeks.

my frend went thru this exact thing last year!!!! he had to get his doctor to write a letter saying the hours were causing his anxiety to get worse. it took like 3 months but he got approved. dont give up!!!

I had something similar happen (not as extreme though) and what worked for me was contacting my state representative's office. They have staff specifically assigned to help constituents with state agency issues. They contacted ESD on my behalf and got it fixed within a few days when I'd been trying for weeks on my own. Don't give up!

UPDATE: You all were right! It was a system error. After trying everything (calling repeatedly, messaging through the portal, contacting our state rep), we finally got through to someone at ESD by calling the governor's office. They had a liaison who escalated it to someone with higher access at ESD. They reversed the bogus $26K charge completely AND processed the refund for the money they'd been taking from his benefits! The money should be deposited next week. I'm incredibly relieved but also disturbed by how easy it would have been to just give up and accept their mistake. The ESD rep actually told us this has been happening to other people too after appeals - the system incorrectly doubles or triples overpayment amounts instead of removing them. For anyone else facing this nightmare: DOCUMENT EVERYTHING, be persistent, and don't be afraid to go straight to the governor's office if needed. Thank you all for your support and advice!

There's also a timing factor with strikes that most people don't realize. The labor dispute disqualification has a "waiting week" too - so sometimes very short strikes (under a week) don't even come into play with unemployment because by the time you could file and serve your waiting week, you're back at work anyway. Probably why there's so much confusion about this topic.

my mom works for esd (not saying this as official advice just what she told me) and she said the big difference is that with strikes theyre looking at if you are "directly involved in the labor dispute" vs if you quit they're looking at if you had "good cause" which is a totally different standard. so its not really a fair comparison to begin with

I had almost the exact same situation in January. Governor's office said I'd get a call the next day, and nothing happened. I waited 3 days, then called the Governor's office back. They apologized and escalated again. Got a call from ESD the next morning at 8:15am, and they resolved my adjudication that same day. My advice: be persistent with the Governor's office. They're actually trying to help, but sometimes your request falls through the cracks on the ESD side. Good luck!

btw if ur really down to ur last $47 u should call 211 right away they can connect u with emergency rent assistance while ur waiting for unemployment to come thru

THE SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO KEEP YOU FROM GETTING BENEFITS!!!!! They make it IMPOSSIBLE to reach anyone on purpose!!!! I filed in January and didn't get ANY benefits until APRIL because I couldn't get through to fix a simple identity verification issue. This is how they save money - by making the system so frustrating people give up!!!!!

Update: I tried calling at 7:59am this morning and after redaling about 20 times, I actually got through! Was on hold for 1.5 hours but finally spoke to someone who resolved my issue. For anyone else struggling - keep trying the early morning calls and just keep redialing if you get the busy message. Persistence eventually paid off for me!

One thing that helped me was gathering evidence that other employees had similar accommodations granted. Do you know if anyone else at your company ever received the same or similar accommodation that you requested? That could really strengthen your case with ESD by showing the company was being discriminatory specifically to you.

Based on what you've shared, I think you have a strong case. ESD typically considers these factors in determining if you quit or were effectively discharged: 1. Did you take all reasonable steps to preserve your employment? 2. Was the employer's action or inaction the real cause of separation? 3. Would a reasonable person in your situation with your medical constraints feel compelled to leave? The fact that your doctor specifically stated you should seek other employment if accommodations weren't possible creates a compelling argument that you had no reasonable alternative. Just make sure ESD has this documentation clearly spelled out. 8 weeks is unfortunately not unusual for complex adjudication cases, especially those involving medical issues and potential discrimination.

btw guys set up a reminder on ur phone for claims! i got one that goes off every monday morning and havent missed since

That's a great idea! Just set one up for Sunday evenings as a backup reminder. Thanks for the tip!