@Unemployment Guru My first claim was a regular UI claim from prior W2 income earned. My weekly benefit was $450, and the claim was opened at the end of June 2019. I started working 1099 jobs in July 2019 and did this on/off through Aug. 2020. I also worked a W2 job for 3 months (Sept. 2020 through Nov. 2020). I was able to reopen my expired claim in Dec. 2020 since I had an available PEUC balance, but had to file for a new claim on 12/27/20 due to the PEUC expiration date (before it was extended again). For this new claim, I was granted a weekly benefit amount of $53 due to a deferred commission payment that my previous W2 employer paid to me in Aug. 2019 for work that was completed in May 2019 (outside of my base period). I sent in an appeal letter and back up to show all my 1099 income, but was never contacted by EDD to discuss and was told over the phone that an auditor denied my appeal without ever notifying me (I never received a letter of this determination). I was told that I have the option of filing a 2nd appeal but that I would need to have received the determination letter in order to get the address/instructions of where to send in the 2nd appeal and back up documentation. I’ve been waiting for this letter since Feb. 11th and have received nothing. I’ve called EDD multiple times and have spoken with several Tier 2 Specialists. None of them have access to the letter or information needed to move things forward. So, my next approach was to try and cancel the claim (instead of appealing) since I never certified on it and reopen a new one as of Jan. 2021 (since the 2019 quarter with the deferred UI commission payment would no longer be an issue as I‘ve earned additional W2 income in another quarter of the new potential base period). Since I haven’t certified on this claim, I was hoping this was a viable option, but I can’t get anyone at EDD to actually cancel the claim for me. A Tier 2 Specialist told me 6 weeks ago that a letter would be coming in the mail scheduling a time to talk with a Determination Specialist - but no such letter has arrived and therefore I have not received any funds since 12/28/20. All of this nonsense over a clerical error that could easily be fixed by actually having a conversation with someone at EDD who has the power/knowledge/clearance to help. EDD has the ability to reach each applicant digitally through their portal, and I should be able to upload all of my documentation to support my claim through the portal as well...but they insist on using snail mail and PO Boxes where I have no way of knowing if my documents are ever being received or seen and there’s no record of my appeal documents in my digital file for Tier 2 Specialists to reference. Not sure what else I can/should do to move the needle here and get some action from EDD? Thank you!
