How long do appeals take for unemployment Washington ESD decision?

12 weeks?? That's insane. How are people supposed to survive that long without income?

I know it sucks. The system is overwhelmed and they're required to do thorough investigations for each appeal.

Wait, I need to keep filing weekly claims? Nobody told me that when I submitted the appeal.

Yes absolutely! If you don't file weekly claims you won't get backpay for those weeks even if you win the appeal. It's in the fine print on the Washington ESD website.

This is correct - learned this the hard way on my first appeal years ago. Lost 4 weeks of benefits because I stopped filing.

I've tried calling probably 50 times. Either busy signal or I get disconnected after waiting on hold for an hour.

I had the same problem getting through to Washington ESD. Found this service called Claimyr that actually got me connected to an agent in like 20 minutes. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Costs money but saved me literally hours of calling.

Interesting, never heard of that service. Did they help you get information about your appeal specifically?

Yeah, the agent was able to tell me exactly where my appeal was in the queue and what documents they were still waiting for. Way better than guessing.

4 months?! How did you survive financially during that time?

Had to borrow money from family and pick up some cash jobs. It was rough but worth it when the backpay came through - got like $8,000 all at once.

That's exactly why I tell everyone to keep filing those weekly claims no matter what. The backpay can be substantial if you win.

I have the layoff notice from HR but it's pretty vague. Should I try to get something more specific from my former employer?

If you can get something in writing that clearly states you were laid off due to lack of work or business reasons, that would be ideal. Even an email would help.

Be careful about contacting your former employer directly. Sometimes it's better to let the appeal process handle the fact-finding. You don't want to accidentally say something that hurts your case.

Those are better odds than I expected. Where did you find that statistic?

It's in the Washington ESD annual report. The success rate varies by type of issue but voluntary quit appeals have a pretty good success rate when there's evidence of misconduct by the employer.

Yeah I've been applying to jobs and logging everything in WorkSourceWA. Just hoping this gets resolved before my savings run out completely.

Good that you're staying on top of the job search. It shows good faith effort and will help your case if it comes up during the hearing.

Also look into food banks and other assistance programs while you're waiting. No shame in getting help when the system is taking forever.

What was your situation? Also voluntary quit dispute?

Yeah, my employer claimed I quit but I was actually terminated for refusing to work unsafe conditions. Have documentation but the wait is killing me.

That sounds like a strong case for you. Termination for refusing unsafe work usually qualifies for benefits. Hang in there.

Good point, I'll make sure to check every few days. Is there a way to get email notifications when something changes?

I think you can set up notifications in your profile settings, but I'd still check manually just to be safe. The system isn't always reliable with notifications.

How much does it cost? Seems like it might be worth it if it actually works.

It's reasonable considering the time and frustration it saves. Much cheaper than missing work to sit on hold all day trying to get through.

I might look into this. Getting some actual information about my appeal would be worth paying for at this point.

There's another level of appeals? How long does that take?

Board of Appeals can take another 3-6 months. It's really a last resort option when you have a strong case but lost at the lower level.

I went through the Board of Appeals process. Took 5 months but I eventually won. The backpay was enormous though - almost $15,000.

Thanks for the encouragement. Just trying to stay positive and keep all my documentation organized for when the hearing finally happens.

That's the right attitude. Having your paperwork ready and staying on top of your weekly claims puts you in the best position to win.

That's somewhat reassuring. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next few weeks then.

Keep filing those weekly claims and document everything. You're doing everything right, just have to wait for the system to catch up unfortunately.