Can I collect ESD benefits after freelance work ends on same claim?

Yes, you can! This is actually a common situation. When you have freelance work, you just need to report your gross earnings when you file your weekly claim for those weeks. If you earn more than your weekly benefit amount, you'll receive $0 for that week, but your claim stays open. Once your freelance work ends, just keep filing weekly claims and reporting zero income - your regular benefits will resume automatically. Just remember those weeks you worked still count against your benefit year, even if you received $0. I went through this twice during my claim period.

make sure u keep ALL ur pay stubs or invoices!!! ESD randomly audited me 6 months after my claim ended and I had to provide proof of every cent I earned. and dont forget to report gross income not what u actually take home after taxes.

I work with claimants in this exact situation all the time. When reporting freelance income, you need to report your GROSS earnings before any deductions, on the week you EARNED the money (not when you get paid). You must continue filing weekly claims without interruption even during weeks you work. If you forget to file for even one week, your claim can become inactive. For freelance/self-employment, you can't deduct business expenses before reporting - report the full amount and ESD will calculate your partial benefit if you earn less than your weekly benefit amount. If you earn more, you'll get $0 that week but don't worry - this does NOT reset your claim or make you ineligible going forward. And yes, keep ALL documentation of your freelance work - invoices, contracts, payment records - for at least 3 years after your benefit year ends. ESD regularly conducts audits.

To clarify for everyone: yes, weeks where you earn above your weekly benefit amount still count against your total available weeks. This applies to ALL claimants (W-2 employees and freelancers alike). The benefit year (the time you have to collect your benefits) is fixed at 52 weeks from when you applied, and you have a maximum number of payable weeks within that period (typically 26 weeks). However, here's an important distinction: If your freelance work is very short-term (1-2 weeks as you mentioned), you're only using 1-2 weeks of benefits, which leaves you with plenty of weeks remaining. But if you were to get a full-time job and stop filing for several months, then lose that job, you could come back and collect your remaining benefits IF you're still within your benefit year.

Hey all, I've helped lots of people navigate ESD claims with intermittent work. If you're having trouble getting through to ESD with questions about reporting freelance work correctly, I found a service called Claimyr that can help you get through to an actual ESD agent without the endless busy signals. Saved me hours of frustration! They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 and their website is claimyr.com. Especially useful if you need clarification on how to report specific types of freelance work.

I DID THE EXACT SAME THING and it was a NIGHTMARE!!! reported my freelance income correctly and ESD STILL flagged my account for "potential fraud" and put me in adjudication for 11 WEEKS with NO BENEFITS! had to upload bank statements, contracts, everything. Even after proving everything was legit they STILL took forever to release my payments. The system is BROKEN!!!!

My sister had freelance work while on unemployment last year and what no one told her was that if you're doing self-employed work, you need to look for regular employment too. She got in trouble because she wasn't doing her 3 job search activities those weeks because she thought the freelance stuff counted. Just heads up.

One more important point that hasn't been mentioned: When you report freelance/self-employment income, you should report it for the week you PERFORM the work, not when you get paid (which is different from W-2 work where you report when paid). Also, regarding job search requirements: Yes, you must continue performing and documenting 3 job search activities each week, even during weeks you do freelance work, UNLESS you've been approved for standby status or commissioner-approved training. Freelance work by itself doesn't exempt you from job search requirements. And a final tip: If your freelance work becomes regular and ongoing, you might want to look into partial unemployment benefits. You can potentially receive partial benefits for a longer period rather than using up full weeks of benefits during periods of no work.