How to Fill Out California EDD Form DE 2503: Employer’s Two-Day Filing

California EDD Form DE 2503, the Notice to Employer of Disability Insurance Claim Filed, is a verification form the Employment Development Department sends you after one of your workers files a State Disability Insurance claim. You confirm the employee’s employment status, last day worked, and any wages being paid during the leave, then return the form within two working days of receipt — either through the SDI Online portal or by mail to the EDD address printed on the paper notice.1Employment Development Department. Employer Requirements

Who Actually Fills This Out

The DE 2503 is the employer’s form. Not the employee’s, not the physician’s. The EDD generates it after your worker files a disability claim on Form DE 2501 and delivers it to you either as paper mail or in your SDI Online inbox.2Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave – Forms and Publications Your job is to verify what the employee told the EDD and supply the wage and employment details the agency needs to calculate benefits.

The medical side is handled separately. California Unemployment Insurance Code Section 2708 requires every claim to be supported by a treating physician’s certificate with a diagnosis, ICD code, and estimated duration.3California Legislative Information. California Unemployment Insurance Code 2708 That goes from the doctor directly to the EDD. You are not asked about the diagnosis and should not try to answer for it. Your form is the employment record.

The Two-Working-Day Deadline

California Unemployment Insurance Code Section 2707.1 gives you two working days from receipt of the notice to respond — or five days from the employee’s last day of work, whichever is later.4Justia Law. California Code UIC 2701-2714 – Filing, Determination and Payment of Disability Weekends and state holidays don’t count. A form arriving Wednesday is due Friday. A form arriving Friday is due the following Tuesday.

Missing the window doesn’t automatically defeat the employee’s claim, but it can delay processing and cause the EDD to make an eligibility call without your input. That matters most when you have information that changes the outcome. If the injury happened on the job and belongs under workers’ compensation, or if the employee is receiving salary continuation you never got a chance to report, a late response can lead to benefit payments that later have to be recovered.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Pull the employee’s personnel file and recent payroll records before opening the form. The DE 2503 asks for specific dates and dollar amounts, and the sections move faster when the answers are already in front of you.5Employment Development Department. SDI Online Tutorial: Employer The form walks through:

  • Employee verification — whether the person currently works for you, previously worked for you, or has never been your employee. If they’ve never worked for you, mark “No” and submit; the rest of the form doesn’t apply.
  • Employee status — currently on leave, terminated, still technically employed, and so on.
  • Return-to-work information — the last day worked before the disability began, plus any known or expected return date.
  • Wage information — whether the employee is receiving wages coordinated with disability benefits. Regular salary continuation, sick leave payouts, and vacation pay all belong here, with the pay type, dates covered, and amounts.
  • Work-related injury — whether the disability resulted from a job injury or illness, and if so, your workers’ compensation carrier information.

The wage coordination question is where employers most often go wrong. If your company pays sick leave or salary continuation during the leave, the EDD needs to know so it can adjust the disability benefit. Skipping this creates an overpayment the employee later has to repay, and the EDD may come back to you to reconcile the difference.

Filing Through SDI Online

If you already have an SDI Online employer account, the DE 2503 shows up in your inbox when the employee files. The submission runs like this:5Employment Development Department. SDI Online Tutorial: Employer

  • From the SDI Online homepage, select “Claim ID,” enter the employee’s claim ID number and last name, and search. When the claim appears under Search Results, select the Claim ID link.
  • Under “My Forms Available to Submit,” choose “2503 Employer Notice of DI Claim.”
  • Review the pre-populated employee information and confirm whether the person works or worked for you.
  • Work through the Employee Status, Return to Work, and Wage Information sections in order. If you answer “no” to coordinated wages but the employee is receiving sick leave, vacation, or other pay, complete the Additional Wages section with pay type, dates, and amounts.
  • If the disability is work-related, enter your workers’ compensation carrier information on the next screen.
  • Check the electronic signature box and select “Submit.” Save the Form Receipt Number that appears on the confirmation screen.

Electronic submission gives you an immediate confirmation of receipt, and the portal accepts filings around the clock.6Employment Development Department. SDI Online

Filing the Paper Form

Without an SDI Online account, the EDD mails a paper DE 2503 to your business address. Complete the applicable sections, sign, and return it to the EDD office address printed on the notice. You can’t download a blank DE 2503 from the EDD website; each form is generated for a specific claim and carries a pre-printed claim identification number and other prefilled details.2Employment Development Department. Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave – Forms and Publications

Paper submissions carry no delivery confirmation unless you pay for tracked mail, and mail time eats into the two-working-day window. If you handle these forms with any regularity, registering for SDI Online pays for itself quickly.

If You Don’t Have an SDI Online Account Yet

Registration is a two-step process: create a myEDD account, then register as an employer inside SDI Online. Before you start, have your eight-digit EDD Employer Account Number (EAN), the ZIP code on file with the EDD, and the total subject wages from your most recent Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (Form DE 9C). Your entries have to match the EDD’s payroll tax records exactly or the registration fails.5Employment Development Department. SDI Online Tutorial: Employer

On the EDD site, select “Create Account,” enter a company email address that only you use, and set a password of at least ten characters combining uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. Confirm your email within 48 hours. On first login the EDD sends a verification code, then prompts you to set a security question and pick a login verification method (text, phone, or email). Once inside myEDD, select “SDI Online” and choose “Register as an Employer” to finish.

The EAN isn’t the same as your federal EIN. It’s the number the EDD assigned when you first registered for California payroll taxes. If you can’t find it, check prior EDD correspondence or your DE 9C filings.

How Your Answers Change the Outcome

Two parts of your response drive what the EDD does next. The wage information determines whether the disability benefit gets reduced. If you’re paying full or partial salary during the leave, the EDD offsets the SDI payment so the employee doesn’t collect more than normal earnings. Report no wages when you’re actually paying sick leave or vacation, and the EDD will eventually catch the mismatch and issue an overpayment notice.

Marking the disability as work-related routes the claim differently. California treats workers’ compensation as the primary coverage for job injuries, so if you flag the claim that way, the EDD may coordinate with your workers’ comp carrier instead of paying SDI. State Disability Insurance generally steps in only when workers’ comp benefits are delayed or denied.

If You Operate a Voluntary Plan

Employers with an EDD-approved Voluntary Plan run disability claims through a private insurer rather than the state program, and they use different forms, typically in the DE 2523 series.1Employment Development Department. Employer Requirements You normally wouldn’t receive a DE 2503 at all. If one does arrive, it usually means the employee filed a state plan claim by mistake. Respond by noting on the DE 2503 that the employee is covered under your Voluntary Plan, and the EDD can redirect the claim to the right place.