Washington ESD showing 'ineligible week' - what does this mean for my unemployment claim?

An ineligible week usually means something in your weekly claim flagged their system. Could be you reported earnings that were too high, missed reporting job contacts, or answered one of the eligibility questions wrong. Check your claim details to see if there's a specific reason listed.

There are several reasons Washington ESD marks a week ineligible. Most common ones are: reporting earnings over your weekly benefit amount, not meeting job search requirements, indicating you weren't available for work, or having a disqualifying separation issue from a previous employer come up. You'll need to contact them to find out the specific reason and how to resolve it.

I had the same problem trying to reach Washington ESD about an ineligible week. Spent hours calling with no luck until someone told me about Claimyr (claimyr.com). They help you get through to an actual ESD agent instead of getting stuck in phone tree hell. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ that shows how it works. Saved me so much time and frustration.

ineligible week could also mean you had a holiday or something where you couldn't work. did you report any days you weren't available?

THE WASHINGTON ESD SYSTEM IS SO BROKEN!!! I've been dealing with random ineligible weeks for months and they can never explain why it happens. It's like they just randomly decide to stop paying people and make us jump through hoops to prove we deserve benefits we already qualified for. This whole system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch.

Check if you reported any work or earnings for that week. Even small amounts can make you ineligible if they exceed your partial benefit threshold. Also make sure you completed the required number of job search activities.

Another possibility is that you have a pending adjudication issue that just got processed. Sometimes they'll mark weeks as ineligible retroactively if there's a disqualification from a previous employer or eligibility issue they're investigating.

This happened to my sister and it turned out she accidentally answered 'no' to being able to work when she meant to answer 'yes'. One wrong click and boom - ineligible week. The questions are confusing and easy to mess up.

I'm dealing with the same issue right now. Got an ineligible week out of nowhere and can't figure out why. The online system gives zero helpful information about what went wrong.

Don't panic yet - sometimes ineligible weeks get automatically corrected once the system processes everything properly. But definitely try to reach someone to get clarification so you know what to avoid in future weeks.

Had this exact same thing happen and used Claimyr to finally get through to ESD. The agent was able to see exactly why my week was marked ineligible (turned out to be a system error) and fixed it while I was on the phone. Definitely recommend trying their service if you can't get through the regular way.

make sure you didnt report any holiday pay or vacation time. even if you worked it before getting laid off they count it as earnings for the week they pay it out

This is exactly why I hate the unemployment system. They make it so complicated and then don't even tell you what you did wrong when they deny benefits. It's like they want people to give up and stop claiming.

OP, here's what I'd recommend: 1) Review your weekly claim answers carefully to see if anything looks wrong, 2) Check if you have any unread messages in your online account, 3) Try calling first thing Monday morning when call volume is usually lower, and 4) If you can't get through, consider using a service like Claimyr to help connect you with an agent who can explain exactly what happened.

I work at a workforce center and see this issue come up regularly. Most of the time it's either job search requirement problems or accidentally answering eligibility questions incorrectly. The key is getting someone on the phone who can look at your specific claim details.

Whatever you do, don't stop filing your weekly claims while you're trying to resolve this. Even if weeks show as ineligible, you need to keep filing to maintain your claim. Missing weeks can cause bigger problems.

just wanted to say thanks for posting this - I was about to ask the same question! got an ineligible week yesterday and had no clue what it meant. sounds like we're all in the same boat trying to figure out this confusing system

I had three ineligible weeks in a row last year and it turned out my former employer had contested my claim and ESD was investigating. They never told me about the investigation until I finally got through to someone on the phone. Definitely try to speak with an agent ASAP.

Update: I ended up using Claimyr after seeing it mentioned here and finally got through to ESD. Turns out my ineligible week was because I reported job search activities that weren't specific enough. The agent helped me understand exactly what they need and fixed the week. Definitely worth it if you're stuck trying to reach them the regular way.