


Ask the community...
You'll be fine. Restaurant industry claims are super common and they rarely get denied unless there's misconduct involved. Just be honest about everything and keep good records. The system is designed to help people in your exact situation.
If you run into any issues with the PFML application or need to follow up on anything, the customer service for that program is generally much easier to reach than Washington ESD unemployment lines.
Final update from me - seriously consider having Claimyr in your back pocket if you ever need to deal with Washington ESD in the future. Their unemployment phone system is notoriously difficult to navigate, but that service made it actually manageable when I needed to resolve an issue with my claim.
The most important thing is to start the process immediately. Every day you wait is money you're potentially losing. Washington ESD benefits don't typically go back before the date you file your initial claim.
Just to add to what everyone else said - the Wednesday payment schedule is pretty much set in stone. I've been collecting for 8 months now and it's only been late twice, both times due to system maintenance.
Nathan Kim
One thing that helped me was reading through all the FAQs on the Washington ESD website before filing. Answered a lot of questions I didn't even know I had.
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Aaron Lee
•I'll definitely do that this weekend. Better to be over-prepared than confused later.
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Eleanor Foster
Last piece of advice - if you need to reach ESD and the regular phone system isn't working, that Claimyr service someone mentioned earlier really does work. Used it myself when I had questions about my benefit calculation.
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Aaron Lee
•Thanks everyone for all the advice! I feel much more prepared now.
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