Got paid without appeal decision letter from ESD - is this normal?

This actually happens more often than you'd think! ESD sometimes processes the payment before all the notification letters go out. In my experience, if they paid you, it means your appeal was successful - the system won't authorize payment unless the decision was in your favor. You should get the official letter within 7-10 days after payment, though with mail delays it might take longer. The eServices portal is notorious for not updating immediately. I'd say this is good news!

congrats on the payment! same thing happened to me last month, got paid but portal still said pending for like 2 weeks after lol. letter showed up eventually. i think ur good

BE CAREFUL!!! They did this to me in January and then a month later said it was a MISTAKE and I had to pay back $4,650!!! The ESD system is completely BROKEN and they make these errors ALL THE TIME. I would NOT spend that money until you have an OFFICIAL letter saying you won your appeal. The representatives will tell you everything is fine but then they'll reverse it later and YOU'LL be stuck with an overpayment notice!!!!

I've had something similar happen, but my situation was that I got the letter first and then the payment came 3 days later. The ESD system seems to handle things in different orders for different people. If the payment has hit your account, it's a pretty good sign. One thing you can check is if your claim status in eServices has changed from disqualified/denied to allowed/approved anywhere in the decisions section. Sometimes that updates before the appeal status does.

If you really want peace of mind before spending the money, you should try reaching ESD directly. I was in a similar situation and couldn't get through on their regular phone line for days. I ended up using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get connected to an agent without the endless hold times. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3. The agent was able to confirm my appeal decision was actually approved in their system even though the portal hadn't updated and I hadn't received my letter yet. Saved me a lot of anxiety!

i think ur overtinking this one lol. they paid u = u won. congrats!

The exact same thing happened to my cousin a few weeks ago. She got paid without any letter, called ESD (took forever to get through), and they told her the payment was correct but the letter generation system was backlogged. Apparently they prioritize getting people paid over sending the paperwork, which makes sense if you think about it. But they also told her to keep checking her online correspondence inbox because sometimes they only send electronic notifications now instead of paper mail.

Quick update! After reading through everyone's experiences here, my suggestion would be to wait about 5 business days to see if the letter arrives. If it doesn't, definitely contact ESD for confirmation. What's important is that you have documentation of the decision in case there are any issues later. The fact you received payment is a very positive sign, though. In my 15+ years working with unemployment systems (as a claimant and later helping others), I've rarely seen cases where payment was issued incorrectly ahead of a decision.