ESD denied second week for 'excessive earnings' after severance - is this normal?

Your severance is considered income by ESD and will absolutely affect your benefits until it's 'used up.' They basically take your severance and divide it by your weekly benefit amount to determine how many weeks you're ineligible. This is completely normal - your friends in other states might have different rules, but Washington is pretty strict about this. Once your severance allocation period ends, you should start getting payments.

the same thing happened 2 me!! my severance was only like $4000 and they denied me for like 6 weeks even tho i was totally unemployed. so stupid how they make us wait when we NEED the money

This is definitely normal for Washington state. Here's what's happening: 1. Your severance pay is allocated over multiple weeks based on your prior wages 2. During this allocated period, you're considered to have "excessive earnings" 3. The first week shows pending because it's your waiting week (you never get paid for the first week in WA anyway) 4. The second week shows denied because your severance allocation is still in effect You should still file your weekly claims even during this period! Once your severance allocation period ends, you'll start receiving benefits automatically if you've been filing. If you don't file during this time, you'll lose those weeks permanently.

i went thru same thing last yr!! kept getting denied bcuz of 'excessive earnings' for like 5 weeks after getting laid off with severance. but then it just started paying after that with no warning or notification. just keep doing ur weekly claims and eventually it'll switch

Have you tried calling ESD to get a clear answer on exactly how many weeks your severance will affect your claim? When I faced a similar situation, I spent days trying to get through on their phone lines with no luck. I eventually used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to connect with an ESD agent in about 20 minutes - they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 The agent was able to tell me exactly when my benefits would start and explained the whole severance allocation calculation. Totally worth it for the peace of mind rather than just guessing when my payments would begin.

This is BY DESIGN folks. The unemployment system isn't meant to DOUBLE PAY you when you're already getting money from your employer. Severance is considered INCOME. I don't get why people are surprised by this. Do people really expect to collect severance AND unemployment at the same time? That's not how it works!

You should be able to see your severance allocation period by logging into your eServices account and checking the "Decisions" tab. There should be a determination letter that explains exactly how many weeks your severance affects your claim. If you can't find it, ask for them to resend the determination letter - this will tell you exactly when you can expect payments to begin. And just to clarify something others have mentioned - it's not about the NUMBER of weeks you worked, but rather your severance amount divided by your weekly benefit amount. So if your severance was $8,500 and your weekly benefit would be $850, that's 10 weeks of ineligibility.

One thing no one mentioned - make sure you're still doing your required job search activities every week even during this waiting period! You need 3 job search activities each week, and if you're not doing them and logging them properly, you could be denied benefits once your severance period ends. Don't make that mistake!