I just wanna say congrats on the new job!! 🎉 That's awesome and must be such a relief after being on unemployment.

One more thing to be aware of: if you earned more than your weekly benefit amount in that final week, you won't receive payment, but it's still important to file and report. It properly closes out your claim cycle and prevents any issues down the road. Good luck with the new position!

Update: I filed the police report this morning and contacted my state representative's office. The police were actually pretty helpful - they took all the information about my car and belongings and said they would send an officer to the property. The state rep's office took all my claim info and said they'd submit an inquiry to their ESD liaison today. Still haven't been able to reach Northwest Justice Project (their line is busy), but I'll keep trying. I'm still sleeping in my car but at least feel like I'm taking steps forward. Thanks everyone for the guidance - will update when I hear anything.

im so sorry ur going thru this!!! i had to wait 6 weeks for my claim and it was horrible but at least i had a place to stay. have you tried any of the shelters? some of them have special programs for people who just lost jobs. also do you have your ID and social security card? you might need those for the housing assistance stuff

I want to clarify something important about the 'did not return to work and earn enough to qualify' message. This is separate from the Reasonable Assurance issue. It means the system is saying you didn't earn enough in your base year to qualify for a new UI claim. If your previous benefit year ended and you're filing a new claim, you need to have worked and earned wages in at least 680 hours during your base year. Double-check your base year wages in eServices to verify you met this requirement. If the information there is incorrect, you'll need to address that as well.

Have you tried going to WorkSource? Sometimes they have ESD people there who can look at your claim without going through the phone nightmare. That's what I did last year when I had an issue with my claim.

have you tried contacting the obusdman office? they help with stuck claims sometimes. my cousin did this and got his claim fixed in like 4 days after being stuck for months

UPDATE: I finally got through to ESD this morning! I took the advice about calling right at 7am, and after a 40-minute wait, I spoke with an agent. They said my claim is still in adjudication but confirmed they have all the necessary information from both me and my employer. The agent said they're currently working through claims from early November, so mine should be decided within the next 7-10 days. She also noted that performance-based terminations generally do qualify for benefits as long as there wasn't willful misconduct. Feeling much more hopeful now. Thanks everyone for your advice!

One more important detail - when your staff applies, they need to indicate they're requesting standby status and provide the specific return-to-work date after each period off. So for your March 31 week, they would enter the date they're returning to work in April. For scattered weeks, this gets updated with each period of unemployment. Also, everyone should set up their ESD account and claims BEFORE the first day off work. The system can be glitchy, and you don't want authentication issues delaying benefits.

Also be prepared for SOME of your staff to have their claims go into adjudication for no apparent reason! ESD randomly flags some claims and then it can take WEEKS to resolve!!! Make sure everyone has some savings just in case because there's no predicting who might get stuck waiting!!