To answer your question about income during adjudication - I was in limbo for those 6 weeks. No benefits while they investigated. I picked up some gig work (DoorDash, etc.) but had to report that income on my weekly claims. Once approved, I got backpay for all weeks claimed minus the partial earnings I reported. Make sure you're claiming every week even if you're in adjudication! That's super important. And be prepared that your former employer will likely contest your claim with their version of events. Stay factual in your responses.

One thing no one has mentioned yet - when you're in adjudication, an ESD adjudicator will contact both you and your employer separately to get statements. This is your chance to clearly explain the retaliation situation. Be ready for that call and have your timeline and documentation handy. They'll typically give you a scheduled time for the call. If they can't reach you during that scheduled time, it can significantly delay your claim or even result in a denial based solely on your employer's statement. So keep your phone handy and check your ESD correspondence regularly. Also - you mentioned being a single parent. Make sure to check into other assistance programs like TANF and SNAP while waiting for UI benefits to be approved.

Random question but did you change banks recently? I had an issue where my payment was delayed because I had updated my bank info and it triggered some kind of security review on my account. Just thought I'd mention it!

UPDATE: My payment finally hit my account this morning! Looks like it was just holiday processing delays like many of you suggested. Thanks for helping me not completely lose my mind over this.

For responding to those ESD letters, I've found it helpful to both upload documents AND call in (if you can get through). The key is to make sure your responses are associated with the specific issue ID number on the notice. Each adjudication issue has a unique identifier, and if you don't reference it correctly, your response might not get matched up properly.

That's a great point about the issue ID number! The adjudicator mentioned that one of my uploads wasn't initially connected to my case because I hadn't referenced the specific issue number correctly. Documentation is definitely key throughout this whole process.

UPDATE: I finally got through to ESD! Turns out there were TWO issues: 1) They were using quarters that included my injury period, and 2) One of my union employers hadn't properly reported all my wages. The agent helped me request an alternate base year calculation AND file a wage correction. She said my benefit amount should increase substantially once these are processed. For anyone having similar issues - check both your base year AND make sure all your wages were properly reported!

so did they let u choose which quarters to use or do they just automatically use the most recent ones for alternate base year?

She had to call once because her claim was in adjudication for almost 3 weeks with no update. The agent was actually really helpful and pushed it through after verifying her documentation. Definitely call if you don't see movement after 2-3 weeks!

Thanks everyone for all the helpful advice! I'm going to file my initial claim, report my summer payments as wages, answer NO to reasonable assurance, and keep doing my job searches every week. I'll update here if I run into any issues or if I learn anything that might help others in similar situations.