Weekly claims showing 'disqualified' despite approval letter - ESD says I'm approved but no benefits?

omg the EXACT same thing happend to me back in January!! i was approved but kept getting disqualified every week. turns out I wasnt answering one of the weekly questions right. The one about being able and available - i said no bc i had a doctors appt one day but that made the whole week disqualified. Check your weekly answers super careful!

Thanks for the suggestion! I double-checked all my weekly claim answers and I'm pretty sure I'm answering everything correctly. I always say YES to being able and available, YES to actively looking for work, NO to refusing any job offers, etc. So frustrating that there's no explanation for why I'm being disqualified!

This sounds like an adjudication issue that was resolved in your favor (hence the approval letter) but their system didn't properly update to actually pay your benefits. There's definitely a disconnect between the decision made by an adjudicator and what's happening with the weekly claims processing.\n\nI would recommend:\n\n1. Take screenshots of your approval letter and the disqualified weekly claims\n2. File an official appeal - you can do this through your eServices account\n3. Contact your state representative - they often have staff who can cut through ESD bureaucracy\n\nThe appeal is important because it creates a formal record and timeline of the issue. Even though you were approved, you need to appeal the disqualifications to get it fixed.

Appeals take FOREVER though. I waited 8 weeks for mine to be processed last year and was almost evicted while waiting. The system is completley broken!!

That's true, appeals can take time - but filing one creates documentation of the problem. Contacting your state rep can often speed things up significantly. They have direct lines to ESD leadership that regular claimants don't have access to.

Have you checked if you have any unreported earnings? Sometimes if you worked even one day during a week or had vacation pay/severance that wasn't reported, it will automatically disqualify you. Another possibility is that you're meeting the job search requirements but not properly documenting them in the system. You need exactly 3 job search activities each week, and they have to be entered correctly.

No unreported earnings at all - I was completely laid off on August 18th with no severance. And I've been documenting 4-5 job search activities each week (more than required) and entering them all into the system. The weird part is getting that approval letter but then having every week show disqualified with no explanation!

I finally got through to ESD after struggling to reach them for weeks by using Claimyr (claimyr.com). They connect you directly to an ESD agent, bypassing the hold times. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3\n\nWhen I finally reached an agent, I discovered my claims were being disqualified because there was a flag on my account that wasn't visible to me. Turns out they had my job separation reason incorrectly coded as \

Thank you for the suggestion! I'm going to try Claimyr tomorrow morning. At this point I'll try anything to get through to an actual person who can explain what's happening. I suspect there might be some kind of coding error like what you experienced.

Driving to olympia is a waste of time they will just tell u to use the phone!!! I went all the way there in february and they wouldnt even let me talk to anyone just gave me the same phone number i was already calling. The whole system is rigged against us!!!!!

This sounds exactly like what happened to me last year. The issue in my case was that even though I was approved for benefits, I still had another

Thank you for the detailed advice! I've definitely been keeping up with my weekly claims despite the frustration of seeing them all disqualified. I'll try calling right at 7am tomorrow, and I'll also prepare a formal written appeal. Did you mail your appeal or submit it electronically?

I submitted mine electronically through my eServices account - there should be an appeals option in there. Just make sure to be very specific about dates, include the approval letter reference number, and clearly state that you're appealing ALL disqualified weeks since your approved benefit start date. Good luck!

My sister works for ESD (not telling which office lol) and she says theres a HUGE backlog right now because they laid off a bunch of staff after covid but claims are going up again with all these tech layoffs. she says they are super short staffed

Just thought of something else - did you verify your identity through ID.me? Sometimes claims get approved but then payments get held because the identity verification wasn't completed. It's a separate system from the main ESD site.

Yes, I did complete the ID.me verification during my initial application. Got the green checkmark and everything. I've been checking my account daily and there are literally no alerts, tasks, or messages indicating any problems or required actions. It's maddening!

UPDATE: I was able to get through to ESD this morning using the Claimyr service someone mentioned above, and wanted to share what I learned since I had a similar issue last month. \n\nThere's a known glitch in their system where an approved claim can still show weekly certifications as \

Thank you SO MUCH for this information! This sounds exactly like what's happening with my claim. I'll definitely be specific about the approval letter and ongoing disqualifications when I call. Really appreciate you coming back to update with what you learned!