My sister had this EXACT problem last month!!! The payment was late and then when she finally got through to someone they said there was a "system flag" on her account even though nothing showed up online. They had to manually remove it. You NEED to talk to an actual person. Keep calling!!!

Just got off the phone with ESD (finally got through after calling at exactly 7:59am). The representative confirmed they're having both payment processing delays AND phone system problems. She said payments are taking up to 5 business days longer than usual for many claimants. For anyone else experiencing this: she recommended NOT calling multiple times as it's creating additional system load. Instead, check your eServices account daily for updates. If your payment doesn't arrive by next Tuesday, then you should call. The weird UW Library message is a known issue where their test system voice prompts are accidentally playing in the production phone system. They expect to have it fixed by Monday.

one thing i havent seen mentioned here - if your contract has any kind of severance or final project payment coming later, make sure you report that correctly. i messed this up and ended up with an overpayment notice for $2,300 that im still paying back. if ur not sure how to report something call and ask first!!!!

One last piece of advice based on recent experience: When you file, be very careful about the "able and available" questions. ESD has been extra strict about this lately. If you say you're not available for full-time work for ANY reason (childcare issues, school schedule, transportation limitations, etc.) they'll likely deny your claim or at minimum send it to adjudication. Also, make sure you're checking your ESD account messages regularly after applying. Sometimes they request additional information with short deadlines, and if you miss those, your claim gets delayed substantially. I recommend checking daily until you're receiving payments reliably.

My sister works in HR and she says all they care about is if you had been warned before about the same issue and did it anyway. Single mistakes almost never count as misconduct unless its something super serious like theft or violence. Just make sure when they ask you questions you don't accidentally admit to anything that sounds intentional.

I see a lot of comments here, but I want to clarify something important: Under ESD rules, a single unintentional policy violation typically does NOT constitute misconduct unless it caused significant harm or was extremely negligent. If you're denied benefits, you have 30 days to file an appeal. The appeal hearing is completely fresh - the Administrative Law Judge doesn't consider ESD's previous decision. Based on what you've described, you have a strong case, especially with no prior disciplinary actions. Just be patient with the process and keep documenting everything.

I called at exactly 8:00am and used the option for "questions about an existing claim" instead of the general questions line. Still took forever but at least I got through eventually!

my buddy said they only took like $40 from his check each week and he had a pretty big 401k so maybe it won't be so bad for u!!!

One other thing to check - make sure the IDs you uploaded are clearly legible. If they're blurry or have glare, the verification team might be struggling to read them. If you're worried about that, you can always upload them again (it won't hurt anything). Also, the ESD system actually places regular claims and ID verification in the same 'adjudication' category even though they're handled by different departments.

Update on my situation: I finally got through to ESD this morning after like 30 attempts calling. They said my ID verification was actually completed last week but the system hadn't updated! The agent manually released my payments. might be worth trying to call non-stop if you can.