How to get paid unemployment benefits through Washington ESD - complete process?

First step is filing your initial claim at esd.wa.gov. You'll need your social security number, employment history for the last 18 months, and reason for separation from your job. After that gets approved, you have to file weekly claims every week to actually receive payments.

just did this myself last month, took about 2 weeks to get my first payment after filing. make sure you have direct deposit set up or it takes even longer

The key thing people miss is the job search requirement. You need to do 3 job search activities per week and keep a log of them. WorkSource registration is also required. Without these, your weekly claims will get denied even if everything else is approved.

If you're having trouble getting through to Washington ESD by phone (which you probably will), I recently discovered this service called Claimyr at claimyr.com that actually gets you connected to a real person. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Saved me hours of busy signals when I needed to check on my claim status.

MAKE SURE YOU FILE YOUR WEEKLY CLAIMS ON TIME!!! I missed one week because I forgot and it messed up my whole payment schedule. You have to file every single week even if you're still waiting for approval on other stuff.

the whole system is a nightmare honestly. took me 6 weeks to get my first payment because they kept asking for more verification documents

Quick tip - set up your SecureAccess Washington (SAW) account before you file your claim. It makes the whole process smoother and you'll need it anyway for weekly claims.

Don't panic if your claim goes into adjudication - that just means they're reviewing something about your case. Mine was in adjudication for 3 weeks but eventually got approved and I got all the back pay.

Also important - your weekly benefit amount is based on your earnings in your base period, which is usually the first 4 of the last 5 quarters before you filed. So if you just started working recently, you might not qualify for much.

be prepared for the website to crash a lot, especially on sundays when everyone is filing their weekly claims. i usually try to file mine late at night or early morning

One thing that helped me was calling right when they open at 8am. Still took 45 minutes to get through but way better than trying during the day. Though honestly, using that Claimyr thing someone mentioned earlier would have saved me so much time.

Make sure you understand the waiting week - there's a one week waiting period before you can receive benefits, so your first payable week is actually your second week of unemployment.

also dont forget about taxes! unemployment benefits are taxable income so you can either have taxes withheld or pay them later. i learned that the hard way at tax time

Just to summarize the complete process: 1) File initial claim online, 2) Register with WorkSource, 3) Wait for approval (1-2 weeks typically), 4) File weekly claims every week, 5) Do 3 job search activities per week, 6) Keep detailed records of everything. The key is staying on top of the weekly requirements.

I tried Claimyr last month when I couldn't get through to resolve an issue with my weekly claim. Worked exactly like they show in their demo video. Got connected to an actual Washington ESD rep in about 15 minutes instead of the usual 2+ hour wait times.

one last tip - take screenshots of everything! your weekly claim confirmations, your job search log, any correspondence from washington esd. if something goes wrong you'll need proof of what you submitted