ESD denied my UI claim despite meeting 680 hour requirement - hours from employers missing

SAME THING happened to me last month!! the system is completely broken. my last employer's hours didnt show up AT ALL even tho i worked there for 8 months. ended up having to get my boss to write a letter confirming my hours & upload it to the appeals portal. took them 5 weeks to overturn the denial. keep trying the phones every morning right when they open - thats how i finally got through.

This is a common issue when hours aren't properly reported by employers to ESD. Here's what you need to do: 1. Continue filing your weekly claims even while appealing - this is CRITICAL 2. Gather documentation of your work hours (paystubs, timesheets, W-2s, etc.) 3. Contact each employer that's missing from your determination letter and request they correct their reporting to ESD 4. File a formal appeal (sounds like you've already started this) 5. Try reaching an ESD agent directly by calling right at 8:00am when their phones open Remember, the base year for claims filed in January 2025 would be October 2023 to September 2024, not October 2022 to December 2023. Double-check which time period they're actually evaluating for your 680 hours.

ya everybody keeps saying call at 8am but thats BS!!! i tried for 2 weeks straight at 8am EXACTLY and never got through. the trick is actually to call at 7:58am and get into the queue before they officially open. worked for me after i wasted so much time trying the "normal" way. the whole system is designed to make us give up!!!

I had almost the identical problem last year. Turned out some of my employers had reported my SSN incorrectly so my hours weren't being properly attributed to me. Here's what ultimately worked: - I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an ESD agent after weeks of failed attempts. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 - The agent was able to see the discrepancy in the system and opened an investigation - I had to provide pay stubs and a letter from my employer confirming my hours - They eventually corrected the issue and backdated my claim Definitely keep filing those weekly claims while this gets sorted out! That's crucial for getting backdated payments once they fix your claim.

my cousin works at esd (not telling which office lol) and she says their systems are COMPLETELY overwhelmed right now. theres a glitch thats been causing hours to disappear from claims filed in january. they know about it but fixing it is taking forever becuz of budget cuts or somethin. keep appealing and calling!!!

To clarify about the base year: For claims filed in January-March 2025, the base year is October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024. So you're right that they should be looking at more recent hours. If you filed on January 8, 2025, then your base year would be quarters 4 of 2023 and quarters 1-3 of 2024. Hours from October 2022 may not be relevant for this claim. This is important because you need to make sure you're appealing with the correct information. Get documentation for the actual base year period they're evaluating.

whatever u do DON'T STOP filing weekly claims!!! my buddy didn't keep filing while his appeal was processing and when they finally fixed his 680 hour problem they only paid him from the weeks he actually filed claims for. lost out on like $4700!!!!!

Have you checked with your previous employers to make sure they properly reported your wages to ESD? I had an issue where my employer had me classified wrong in their system (as a 1099 instead of W-2), so none of those hours were showing up in the ESD system. Took some back and forth with the HR department but they eventually fixed it on their end.

I went through this exact nightmare last year. My determination letter was missing almost 850 hours from two different employers! After three appeal letters with no response, I finally got through to someone on the phone who explained that sometimes hours don't transfer properly in their system if there's ANY discrepancy in how your name or SSN was entered by different employers (like using a middle initial at one job but not another). Request a copy of your wage and hour history report directly from ESD. Compare that to your actual work records. If there's a mismatch, you'll need documentation from each employer confirming your actual hours worked. Time-consuming but it worked for me.