I went through the EXACT same thing in July. Claim stuck for almost 7 weeks. What finally worked was contacting my state representative (like someone else mentioned). But what I learned afterward was that my claim was flagged for identity verification and they never sent me the notice! So check your spam folder AND your physical mail. Sometimes they send letters but not notices in the portal. So frustrating. Hang in there.

Just checking back - any updates? Were you able to reach anyone at ESD or get help from your legislators?

UPDATE: Finally managed to speak with an ESD agent! Turns out this was exactly what someone mentioned above - they were counting my final paycheck + vacation payout as "unreported earnings" even though I DID report it. The agent found my original reports and has submitted a correction to remove the overpayment completely. She said the system sometimes flags these automatically during audits and human review is needed to fix it. Such a relief! She also said they're sending these waiver emails proactively when their system detects possible errors like this. Thanks everyone for the help and advice!

This happened to my cousin too! He never even knew about an overpayment until he got the waiver email. Turns out they had him confused with someone with a similar name. The whole system is such a mess these days.

my cousins friend works at esd and she said they're having MAJOR computer problems this month. like their whole system is being updated or something. that's probably why your getting kicked out AND why your claim shows wrong info. id wait til next week before panicking maybe

I just got off the phone with ESD (used that Claimyr service I mentioned earlier - got through in about 20 minutes instead of days of calling). The rep confirmed they're having serious system issues right now that are affecting both the timeout problems AND claim statuses showing incorrectly for some people. The rep suggested taking screenshots of any error messages, and if your claim status suddenly changed without notification, they recommended checking again in 3-5 business days once their system update is complete. However, they also said if you're approaching the 30-day appeal window, you should file an appeal anyway just to protect your rights. Thought I'd share this update since it might help others with similar issues!

Update: Just wanted to let everyone know that my status changed to

That's great news! You should see the deposit tomorrow or the next day. So glad it worked out for you!

I hate to say this but you might need to talk to a lawyer who specializes in unemployment issues. I know it's expensive, but when you're facing $22k in repayments, it might be worth it. The Legal Aid office sometimes offers free consultations for these cases.

If you go the appeal route, make sure to clearly explain how you calculated your weekly income from your biweekly payments. The key issue will be whether you properly reported your work hours and earnings each week, even if the actual payment was biweekly. For example, if you earned $1600 biweekly for 80 hours of work, ESD would expect you to report $800 for each week (40 hours). If you reported the full $1600 only on the weeks you received payment, that would trigger an overpayment determination because it would appear you weren't reporting income for the alternate weeks. The good news is that if this was an honest misunderstanding about reporting requirements rather than intentional fraud, you have a much better chance of getting the overpayment reduced or the penalties waived.