Do you get paid during Washington ESD waiting period for unemployment benefits?

Washington ESD eliminated the waiting week back in 2020, so yes you should get paid for all eligible weeks including your first week. If you filed your weekly claim correctly and were eligible, that first week should be paid. Check your account on the Washington ESD website to see your payment status.

Thank you! That's a relief. I checked my account and it shows my first weekly claim is 'processed' but no payment date yet. How long does it usually take for the money to show up?

Usually 2-3 business days after it shows processed. Make sure your direct deposit info is correct in your account settings.

Mine took 4 days last month, don't panic if it's not there immediately

Yeah the waiting week is gone in Washington. But be careful because if there are any issues with your claim like identity verification or work separation issues, they might hold up your payments while they review everything. Have you had any problems with adjudication?

No adjudication issues that I know of. My claim status just says 'active' and I've been filing my weekly claims on time. Hopefully the payment comes through soon!

If you're having trouble getting through to Washington ESD to check on payment delays, I recently found this service called Claimyr that helps you actually reach a live agent. They have a website at claimyr.com and there's a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Way better than trying to call and getting hung up on constantly.

Is that actually legit? Sounds too good to be true with how impossible it is to reach anyone at Washington ESD.

Yeah it's real, they basically handle the calling and waiting for you so you don't have to sit on hold for hours. Saved me a lot of frustration when I had a payment issue.

Interesting, might have to try that if my payments don't start coming through normally

Just to clarify for anyone else reading this - Washington state eliminated the waiting week permanently in July 2020. So now you get paid for your first eligible week of unemployment. Before that change, everyone had to serve one unpaid waiting week before benefits started.

Good to know the exact date, thanks! So I should definitely expect payment for week 1 then.

That's only if you're eligible for that first week though. If you worked part-time or had earnings, it might affect your payment amount.

I didn't work at all that first week so should be good

ugh i remember the waiting week from when i was laid off in 2019, that was so stressful having to wait an extra week for money when you're already broke from losing your job. glad they got rid of it

Right? It made no sense to make people wait when they're already in a tough spot financially

The waiting week was such a stupid policy, penalizing people for becoming unemployed through no fault of their own

Make sure you're filing your weekly claims every week even if you haven't received payment yet. If you miss filing a weekly claim, you can lose eligibility for that week's benefits and they don't always let you file it late.

Yes I've been filing every Sunday like clockwork. Definitely don't want to mess that up!

Good! Also make sure you're doing your job search activities if required. Washington ESD can ask for your job search log at any time.

Yep, keeping track of all my job applications and interviews in the WorkSourceWA system

If your payment is taking longer than expected, sometimes there are random holds they put on new claims for verification purposes. I had to verify my identity through ID.me when I first filed and that delayed my payments by almost two weeks.

Same thing happened to me! Had to upload documents to prove my identity and then wait for them to review everything. Super frustrating when you need the money.

Oh no, hopefully that's not what's happening with mine. Haven't gotten any requests for additional documents yet.

You'd get a notice in your Washington ESD account if they needed anything additional from you. Check the 'Messages' section regularly

Pro tip: set up direct deposit if you haven't already. Way faster than waiting for a debit card to arrive in the mail. I got my first payment 2 days after it was processed because of direct deposit.

The debit card option is so slow! Took like 10 business days for mine to arrive when I first filed.

I did set up direct deposit during the application process so hopefully that speeds things up

Perfect, you should be all set then. Just give it a few more days

Another thing to watch out for - if you had any severance pay or vacation payout from your last job, that might delay when your benefits start even though there's no waiting week anymore. Washington ESD treats that as wages for the weeks it covers.

This is important! I didn't realize my two weeks of severance would count against my unemployment benefits. Had to wait until those weeks were 'used up' before my UI payments started.

I didn't get any severance so that shouldn't be an issue for me thankfully

Good, then you should just have normal processing time to deal with

For what it's worth, I've been using that Claimyr service someone mentioned earlier and it's been super helpful for getting through to Washington ESD when I have questions. Much better than the endless busy signals and dropped calls I was dealing with before.

How much does something like that cost? Seems like it might be worth it given how impossible it is to reach anyone normally.

They focus more on the value of actually reaching an agent rather than the cost. For me it was worth it to avoid spending hours on hold just to get hung up on.

Might have to check that out if I run into issues with my claim. The regular phone system is absolutely useless

Just want to add that Washington state was actually one of the first states to eliminate the waiting week during COVID. It was supposed to be temporary but they made it permanent which was great for people like us who need every week of benefits we can get.

Yeah that was one of the few good changes that came out of the pandemic unemployment situation. Made things slightly less awful for people who lost their jobs.

Agreed, at least something positive came out of that mess

Really glad I don't have to deal with a waiting week on top of everything else. Thanks everyone for the info!