Cocoon assists employees filing for benefits in California with two benefit payment programs: California State Disability and Paid Family Leave. Both California SDI and PFL are managed by the California Employment Development Department (CA EDD).
State Disability Insurance (SDI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL)
California SDI and Paid Family Leave are entirely funded by employees through State Disability Insurance (SDI) contributions from their paychecks. An employee who does not live in California, will be eligible if their job is based in California and they pay into State Disability Insurance (noted as CASDI on their paystub). For more information on SDI and PFL benefits, eligibility, and current payroll deduction rates, please refer to the CA EDD website.
Employer Responsibilities
Although employers do not pay for the SDI or PFL benefits, they do have the following responsibilities:
Inform their employees of laws and regulations about employment, benefits, and working conditions.
Withhold and send SDI contributions to the EDD.
Respond to the EDD for employee claims.
Employers that operate a business and employ one or more employees, must register as an employer with the CA EDD when you pay more than $100 in wages in a calendar quarter. Employers must file the Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (CA DE 9). The DE 9 Form reconciles reported wages and paid taxes for each quarter.
Why does Cocoon request access to my employer Account?
Cocoon requests authorized access to your employer CA EDD portal in order to file employer notices on your behalf for employees filing claims and seeking benefits through the state SDI and PFL programs.
When an employee submits an online claim for SDI and PFL benefits, you as the employer are required by law to respond to the following notices sent by the EDD:
Notice to Employer of Disability Insurance Claim Filed (DE 2503) – Sent to you after the employee has filed a DI claim. You must complete and return to the EDD within two working days using either SDI Online or the paper form to verify the information the employee provided on their claim.
Notice of Paid Family Leave (PFL) Claim Filed (DE 2503F) – Sent to you after the employee has filed a PFL claim. You must complete and return the paper form to the EDD within two working days to verify the information the employee provided on their claim.
How does Cocoon file a 2503 (Disability) Notice
Form 2503 can be filed online through your employer portal and will also be received through the paper mail. When logged in to your employer portal, you must search for a claim by using a Claim ID (receipt number from the employee claim and the employee last name. Here you must complete information such as verifying employment, return to work information, voluntary plan information, wage information, and indicate whether it was a work-related injury. Cocoon is able to complete these sections on your behalf based on information submitted by the employee in their Cocoon leave plan as well as information included on the census report.
How does Cocoon file a 2503 F (PFL) Employer Notice
At this time, Form 2503 F is not available online and must be completed through paper mail. Although your company name is listed as the employer of record, Cocoon’s address is used to ensure we receive these forms by mail and can complete them on your behalf.
Cocoon actions this form exclusively for PFL bonding leaves. If you happen to receive this form directly for any employees on bonding leave, kindly forward it to [email protected] for us to handle.
If Cocoon is unable to get access to my CA EDD account, what is the impact?
If Cocoon is unable to access your online portal with the CA EDD, Cocoon is unable to file the 2503 employer notice on an employee SDI claim online. As a result, Form 2503 will have to be filed by paper mail. Filing claims by paper adds significant processing time and can result in a delay in receiving benefit payments.
How does Cocoon gain access to my employer Account?
In order to gain access, we request that you have previously set up your employer portal, and that you share your most recent CA DE 9 form. This form provides us with three pieces of information that allow us to access your employer portal:
your employer account number (EAN),
the zip code you filed with the EDD,
and the total subject wages from the most recent quarter.
Admin tip:
Depending on when you launch with Cocoon, we may request your most recent quarter and the previous quarter as the CA EDD may be in the process of changing quarters.
If we have received your two most recent DE 9 Forms, and are still having trouble accessing your account, the EDD might have different information on record. Oftentimes there can be trouble with the zip code as this may have changed throughout the lifetime of your company. To troubleshoot this issue and gain Cocoon access, there are two options available.
You can contact the EDD directly to confirm the information on your account and provide this to Cocoon
You can share your login credentials with Cocoon to access your account. Please note that by sharing your login information, Cocoon has access to the same limited information as we would logging in ourselves. If in the future, your relationship with Cocoon ends, you would just need to change your login information so Cocoon would no longer be able to access your account.
Any questions? Please reach out to the Support team at: