Won OAH hearing but still waiting for ESD to release funds - how long is the wait?

Congrats on winning your appeal! ESD is notorious for taking their sweet time implementing OAH decisions. In my experience last year, it took about 14 business days (so nearly 3 weeks) before they updated my claim status and released my backpay. The process is frustratingly slow because the OAH decision has to be sent to ESD, then routed to the right department, then someone has to manually review and implement it. I'd recommend waiting until at least the 2-week mark before trying to contact them. When you do reach out, make sure you have your OAH case number and decision date ready.

OMG I went through the exact same thing in January!!! Won my hearing (took FOREVER) and then had to wait another 21 days for ESD to do anything!!! I called them every single day and nobody could tell me anything useful just "it's in process" or "we don't handle that department" so frustrating!!! My advice is call them NOW don't wait cause sometimes they "lose" the paperwork or whatever excuse they have. Good luck!!!!!

To add some clarity to this process: When the OAH judge rules in your favor, their decision is sent to ESD's Benefits Accuracy & Quality Control team. By law, ESD has up to 30 days to implement an OAH decision, though it typically happens within 10-21 business days. A few important things to know: 1. Continue filing your weekly claims during this waiting period - this is absolutely critical 2. The status in your online account won't update until they've processed the decision 3. When they do process it, you should receive all back benefits in a lump sum for any weeks you properly filed 4. If you haven't seen any change after 15 business days, then it's reasonable to contact ESD directly Unfortunately, calling the regular ESD number likely won't help much during this phase, as the regular claims agents don't have visibility into the appeals implementation process.

i had my appeal won in march and it took 16 days for the money to show up. didnt get any letter or update or anything it just appeared in my account one morning. weird system they got.

When I went through this in December, I waited 17 days and nothing happened, so I tried calling ESD. Spent THREE DAYS trying to get through on that impossible phone system - either got busy signals or it would disconnect after 45+ minutes on hold. Finally I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual ESD agent in about 20 minutes. The agent was able to see that my appeal was sitting in someone's queue but hadn't been processed yet. She escalated it and I got my back pay within 48 hours. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/7DieNd3C7zQ?si=26TzE_zGms-DODN3 They bypass the phone system somehow. Definitely worth it because waiting for ESD to magically process things on their own can take forever.

The whole system is DESIGNED to be slow and discourage people from getting benefits they're entitled to. I bet if you were OVERPAID they'd process that in about 5 seconds flat! But when they owe YOU money? Suddenly everything moves at a snail's pace. I've been through 2 appeals with ESD and both times it took them nearly the full 30 days to process. And then they act like they're doing you a favor by giving you YOUR OWN MONEY.

my cousin works for esd (not saying which dept) and she says the appeals backlog is crazy right now because they had to train a bunch of new people. apparently theres a special code in their system for oah decisions that not everyone is trained to process. hang in there!

One important point I forgot to mention: If you're experiencing severe financial hardship (like potential eviction or utility shutoff), you can request an expedited processing of your OAH decision implementation. Call the ESD claims center and specifically ask for a "hardship escalation" for your appeal implementation. You'll need to provide some proof of the hardship, but it can potentially speed things up significantly.