To answer your question about income during adjudication - I was in limbo for those 6 weeks. No benefits while they investigated. I picked up some gig work (DoorDash, etc.) but had to report that income on my weekly claims. Once approved, I got backpay for all weeks claimed minus the partial earnings I reported. Make sure you're claiming every week even if you're in adjudication! That's super important. And be prepared that your former employer will likely contest your claim with their version of events. Stay factual in your responses.

One thing no one has mentioned yet - when you're in adjudication, an ESD adjudicator will contact both you and your employer separately to get statements. This is your chance to clearly explain the retaliation situation. Be ready for that call and have your timeline and documentation handy. They'll typically give you a scheduled time for the call. If they can't reach you during that scheduled time, it can significantly delay your claim or even result in a denial based solely on your employer's statement. So keep your phone handy and check your ESD correspondence regularly. Also - you mentioned being a single parent. Make sure to check into other assistance programs like TANF and SNAP while waiting for UI benefits to be approved.

oh i 4got to mention if ur using the GI Bill that doesnt count against ur unemployment. some ppl think it does but it dont. u can collect both at same time

This is correct. GI Bill benefits are for education and don't impact your unemployment eligibility or benefit amount. However, if you're attending school full-time, ESD might question your availability for work, so be prepared to explain how you're still able and available to accept full-time employment while attending school.

One other thought - check your spam/junk email folders carefully. ESD has been sending some communications from new email domains in 2025 as part of their system upgrade, and many email providers are flagging them as spam. I've seen several cases where claimants missed important adjudication interview notices because they went to spam, which then caused extended delays in processing.

That's a great point! I just checked all my spam folders going back three months and unfortunately don't see anything from ESD that I missed. But I'll keep checking daily and also adjust my spam settings to make sure I don't miss anything going forward.

For responding to those ESD letters, I've found it helpful to both upload documents AND call in (if you can get through). The key is to make sure your responses are associated with the specific issue ID number on the notice. Each adjudication issue has a unique identifier, and if you don't reference it correctly, your response might not get matched up properly.

That's a great point about the issue ID number! The adjudicator mentioned that one of my uploads wasn't initially connected to my case because I hadn't referenced the specific issue number correctly. Documentation is definitely key throughout this whole process.

UPDATE: I finally got through to ESD! Turns out there were TWO issues: 1) They were using quarters that included my injury period, and 2) One of my union employers hadn't properly reported all my wages. The agent helped me request an alternate base year calculation AND file a wage correction. She said my benefit amount should increase substantially once these are processed. For anyone having similar issues - check both your base year AND make sure all your wages were properly reported!

so did they let u choose which quarters to use or do they just automatically use the most recent ones for alternate base year?