I don't want to scare you but BE PREPARED for them to side with your employer. My hearing was a complete joke - the judge interrupted me constantly and seemed to have made up his mind before I even spoke. The whole system is designed to deny benefits! I had to appeal the appeal and that took ANOTHER 2 months. Make sure you record the hearing (they'll tell you how) so you have evidence if you need to escalate.

Just wanted to mention - my sister works at WorkSource and she said they offer free workshops on preparing for unemployment appeal hearings. Might be worth checking if your local office has something similar? They can help you organize your evidence and practice answering the types of questions the judge might ask.

My brother had his claim stuck four months!! He called governors office and nothing happened for almost 3 weeks, then suddenly everything was fixed and he got backpay for everything. So dont give up hope but also dont expect miracles tomorrow. The system is totally broken.

One thing I learned from my experience - when your claim does get approved after adjudication, if you're owed backpay, it typically shows up 2-3 business days after the approval. Just so you can plan accordingly once you see movement on your claim status.

By the way, to everyone saying it's fine - the problem isn't always about eligibility! Sometimes ESD calculates your benefit amount wrong and then realizes it later. My friend was getting $890 a week for three weeks, then suddenly they said his actual benefit was only supposed to be $670 and he had to pay back over $600! So even if you ARE approved, they can still mess up the amount and demand repayment. The whole system is just broken beyond belief.

update? did u get the official letter yet? im curious cuz im still waiting on my first payment 😩

Something a lot of people don't realize is that ESD has specific rules about the transition back to work. When you accept a job offer, you're still eligible to claim until you start working. Once you start working, you report hours worked that week, even without pay. If you work less than full-time hours (less than 40 per week), you may qualify for partial benefits if your earnings for that week are less than your weekly benefit amount. What confuses many people is the difference between hours worked versus payment received. ESD only cares about when you performed the work, not when you got paid for it. This is actually designed to protect workers - imagine if you worked but then the employer went bankrupt before paying you. ESD's system ensures you're covered during the work period regardless of when payment arrives. The interview experience you had sounds unnecessarily harsh, but I would still recommend keeping your claim active by filing weekly (with accurate hours reported) until you're financially stable with the new job. Better safe than sorry if something unexpected happens.

A practical tip for anyone in this situation: take screenshots of your weekly claim submissions showing the hours you reported. I had an issue last year where ESD claimed I hadn't reported properly, but I had screenshots showing every submission with dates and confirmation numbers. Saved me from a potential overpayment nightmare.

I had this happen last summer - got approved for both programs at once. What worked for me was going IN PERSON to the WorkSource office in Lacey. Even though they're separate from ESD technically, the supervisor there was able to call an internal ESD number and get me connected to someone who could help. Took about 3 hours of waiting but it worked when nothing else did.

Quick update on the form situation since there seems to be confusion: The Benefit Payment Refund process changed in late 2024. You now have three options: 1. Online: Use the Benefit Return Portal (though as someone mentioned, it can be glitchy) 2. Phone: Get through to ESD and request a payment reversal (only works if payment is less than 5 days old) 3. Mail: You can still use the form method, but it's now form ESD-5617 not 5314 Also important - make sure to update your PFMLA application to show the exact weeks you received unemployment. This prevents PFMLA from overpaying you as well, creating a second problem.