Washington ESD showing ineligible week on my claim - why does my unemployment say ineligible week?

There are several reasons Washington ESD might mark a week as ineligible. Did you report any earnings for that week, even part-time work? Sometimes people forget to report small amounts of income and that can trigger an ineligible status.

ugh this happened to me too last month! turned out i had answered one of the weekly claim questions wrong by accident. check your answers again

If you're having trouble getting through to Washington ESD to resolve this, I recently found out about a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps people get connected to ESD agents. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ showing how it works. Might be worth checking out since ineligible weeks can really mess up your benefit payments if not resolved quickly.

An ineligible week usually means there's something in your weekly claim answers that doesn't meet the eligibility requirements. Common reasons include: reporting you weren't available for work, not meeting job search requirements, or having disqualifying income. You should be able to see more details in your eServices account under the claim details.

THE WASHINGTON ESD SYSTEM IS SO CONFUSING!!! I swear they make it impossible to understand what's going on with your claim. I've had multiple weeks show weird statuses and half the time their own customer service people can't explain it either.

One thing to check - did you complete your job search activities for that week before filing your claim? Washington ESD requires 3 job search activities per week, and if you file your weekly claim before completing all 3, it might flag as ineligible. You can update your job search log retroactively though.

Check if you had any medical appointments or other situations that week that might have made you unavailable for work. Even things like being out of town or having a doctor's appointment can sometimes affect eligibility if not reported correctly.

similar thing happened to my brother last year. turned out he had put the wrong dates or something when he was filling out his weekly claim. washington esd is really picky about dates and details

Just wanted to follow up on the Claimyr service I mentioned earlier. I used it again this week for a different issue and got through to a Washington ESD agent in about 15 minutes. Much better than the hours I used to spend trying to call myself. Really helpful for situations like this where you need to speak to someone to understand what went wrong with your claim.

I work in HR and deal with unemployment claims regularly. An ineligible week status usually means one of your weekly claim answers triggered a flag in their system. The most common reasons are issues with availability, job search compliance, or unreported income. You'll need to contact Washington ESD directly to get it resolved and potentially corrected.

Have you tried looking at your correspondence in eServices? Sometimes Washington ESD sends messages about why a week was marked ineligible, but they don't always make it obvious where to find those messages.

this is why i hate dealing with unemployment. everything is so confusing and they never explain anything clearly. hope you get it figured out OP

One more thing to check - make sure you didn't accidentally report that you refused work or turned down a job offer that week. That would definitely make you ineligible. Also double-check that you reported being actively looking for work.

Update us when you find out what happened! I'm dealing with some confusing stuff on my claim too and it would be helpful to know what caused your ineligible week.

I had the same issue and it turned out I had answered 'no' to the question about being physically able to work when I meant to answer about being available. The questions are worded so similarly that it's easy to get confused. Check your answers really carefully.

For what it's worth, I've used that Claimyr service mentioned earlier and it really does work well for getting through to Washington ESD when you need to resolve claim issues like this. Saved me a lot of headache trying to call repeatedly.

Just want to add that you should continue filing your weekly claims even while this is being resolved. Don't skip weeks thinking your claim is messed up - that will definitely cause bigger problems. Keep filing and work on getting the ineligible week corrected separately.

Hope you get this sorted out quickly! These kinds of claim issues are so stressful when you're already dealing with being unemployed. Let us know what happens when you call Washington ESD.

I had a similar "ineligible week" issue a few months ago and it was nerve-wracking! In my case, it turned out to be because I had reported being "unable to work" one day due to illness, but I answered the question incorrectly. Even though I was only sick for one day and could work the rest of the week, the way I answered made it look like I was unavailable for the entire week. The key is to be very careful about how you interpret those weekly questions - they're asking about your availability for the ENTIRE week, not just individual days. When I called Washington ESD (took several tries to get through), they explained that if you're unavailable for work for any reason during the week, you need to report it very specifically or it can flag the whole week as ineligible. They were able to correct it once I explained what happened. Definitely call as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the more complicated it can become to resolve.