How do I get a new Continued Claim form for unemployment?
February 25, 2009 4:14 PM Subscribe
California Unemployment: I filed for unemployment a while ago, and due to a variety of factors, my Continued Claim form expired before I was able to send it in. How can I get an updated one?
The background: I was laid off at the beginning of December, almost immediately after which I filed for unemployment in my home state of California, via their online filing service. I received my initial Continued Claim form which covered the weeks up to 12/21, which I needed to send in no more than two weeks after that date. While the form was coming in the mail, I set up an interview for a job between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, for which I would almost surely be hired. I essentially did get hired at that interview, with my interviewer saying he'd get back to me the next week after consulting with his partners to make me an offer. Once they got back into the office after the holiday, everything had gone to pot for them and they lost a couple of their projects, meaning that they wouldn't be able to bring me in. While I was waiting for them to get back to me, my claim form expired.
So, I've reviewed the unemployment handbook, which doesn't say anything about my particular situation (that I can find), but says something about calling to request a new claim form if you don't receive yours in an appropriate amount of time, which I figured was the closest scenario to mine. From what I can see online at the Employment Development Department's website, it seems that they only have the "file for a claim" form that I've already filled out, and I'd rather not do that again, just because I'm worried about inputting different information than I did originally and having conflicting things or two claims at once and them getting all huffy about it. For the last month or so, I've been calling the unemployment number 5-10 times a day, and have only even gotten into the actual phone menu tree system once, whereupon I was informed that no one was available to take my call (usually, their lines are too busy to even allow access to the phone menu).
So, how do I get to where I'm receiving Continued Claim forms again? Am I even going about this right? Do I just need to fill out the "File a Claim" form again? If nothing else, I'll probably just go down to the local unemployment branch tomorrow in person to try to sort things out.
The background: I was laid off at the beginning of December, almost immediately after which I filed for unemployment in my home state of California, via their online filing service. I received my initial Continued Claim form which covered the weeks up to 12/21, which I needed to send in no more than two weeks after that date. While the form was coming in the mail, I set up an interview for a job between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, for which I would almost surely be hired. I essentially did get hired at that interview, with my interviewer saying he'd get back to me the next week after consulting with his partners to make me an offer. Once they got back into the office after the holiday, everything had gone to pot for them and they lost a couple of their projects, meaning that they wouldn't be able to bring me in. While I was waiting for them to get back to me, my claim form expired.
So, I've reviewed the unemployment handbook, which doesn't say anything about my particular situation (that I can find), but says something about calling to request a new claim form if you don't receive yours in an appropriate amount of time, which I figured was the closest scenario to mine. From what I can see online at the Employment Development Department's website, it seems that they only have the "file for a claim" form that I've already filled out, and I'd rather not do that again, just because I'm worried about inputting different information than I did originally and having conflicting things or two claims at once and them getting all huffy about it. For the last month or so, I've been calling the unemployment number 5-10 times a day, and have only even gotten into the actual phone menu tree system once, whereupon I was informed that no one was available to take my call (usually, their lines are too busy to even allow access to the phone menu).
So, how do I get to where I'm receiving Continued Claim forms again? Am I even going about this right? Do I just need to fill out the "File a Claim" form again? If nothing else, I'll probably just go down to the local unemployment branch tomorrow in person to try to sort things out.
I meant to say that my friend files her weekly claim by phone. If you have a phone option, then it may be easier to just call and chose the "weekly claim" option from the announced list rather than wading through the website to find it.
posted by Piscean at 6:09 PM on February 25, 2009
posted by Piscean at 6:09 PM on February 25, 2009
Best answer: I meant to say that my friend files her weekly claim by phone.
Well, that's kind of the rub. It's pretty much impossible to get through to California's unemployment department (newspeakishly named the "Employment Development Division") by phone; like I said, I tried for a month and only once even got into their phone menu tree.
Anyway, in case this comes up again for someone else and they want to know how things were resolved, I eventually did find a link on the EDD website that goes to a general email form that you can send in. I followed that, explained my situation in the box provided, and waited for results, with the site telling me after I sent it in that they had a lot of emails to respond to, so patience would be required. The next day, I received a phone call from EDD which I was unable to answer (otherwise indisposed at the time), and they left a message saying to call, giving me the number I had tried to call for a month. Hahaha, real funny, fuckers. About 15 minutes after that, I got an email telling me that they were mailing me via snail mail an appointment time for a phone interview. I got the appointment mailing, with the interview scheduled for about 2 weeks out. The interview went fine - the only sticking point with them was why I'd waited so long to contact them about getting a new form and didn't try calling sooner. Again, hahaha. So, with that explained and my reasoning approved, they've sent me a new form, and all is reasonably right with the world again. Hooray.
posted by LionIndex at 10:01 PM on March 23, 2009
Well, that's kind of the rub. It's pretty much impossible to get through to California's unemployment department (newspeakishly named the "Employment Development Division") by phone; like I said, I tried for a month and only once even got into their phone menu tree.
Anyway, in case this comes up again for someone else and they want to know how things were resolved, I eventually did find a link on the EDD website that goes to a general email form that you can send in. I followed that, explained my situation in the box provided, and waited for results, with the site telling me after I sent it in that they had a lot of emails to respond to, so patience would be required. The next day, I received a phone call from EDD which I was unable to answer (otherwise indisposed at the time), and they left a message saying to call, giving me the number I had tried to call for a month. Hahaha, real funny, fuckers. About 15 minutes after that, I got an email telling me that they were mailing me via snail mail an appointment time for a phone interview. I got the appointment mailing, with the interview scheduled for about 2 weeks out. The interview went fine - the only sticking point with them was why I'd waited so long to contact them about getting a new form and didn't try calling sooner. Again, hahaha. So, with that explained and my reasoning approved, they've sent me a new form, and all is reasonably right with the world again. Hooray.
posted by LionIndex at 10:01 PM on March 23, 2009
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Good luck with this- the unemployment systems are HORRIBLE. I called for help and I was caller #62. I never did become #61.
posted by Piscean at 6:08 PM on February 25, 2009