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If you're having trouble getting through to the IRS about federal unemployment tax questions, I found this service called Claimyr that helps people reach government agencies by phone. They have a website at claimyr.com and there's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. I used it to get through to the IRS when I had payroll tax questions and it saved me hours of being on hold.
I had a nightmare trying to reach someone at NYS Department of Labor when my claim got stuck in adjudication for weeks. Kept calling and either got busy signals or hung up on after waiting for hours. Finally found this service called Claimyr that actually got me through to a real person at the unemployment office. Check out claimyr.com - they have a video demo that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI. Worth it if you run into issues and need to talk to someone.
Don't forget you'll have to pay taxes on unemployment benefits! A lot of people get surprised by that at tax time. You can have them withhold 10% federal taxes when you certify your weekly claims.
Oh wow I didn't even think about taxes. So if I get $215 a week and don't withhold taxes, I'll owe money next year?
The system is so confusing honestly. I've been collecting for 2 months and still not sure if I'm doing the job search thing right. They want 3 activities but what if you apply to 10 jobs in one day - does that count as 10 activities or just 1? And networking events - how do you even document those properly?
Thais Soares
If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to get clarification on any disqualification issues, I had success using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to actually reach a live agent. They have a system that gets you connected without waiting on hold for hours. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really helped me understand why my initial claim got flagged for adjudication.
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Nalani Liu
•interesting, never heard of that service before. did they charge you for it?
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Thais Soares
•They do charge but it was worth it to actually talk to someone and get my issue resolved quickly instead of calling for weeks.
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Axel Bourke
The system is honestly set up to reject people. I got disqualified because they said I 'voluntarily quit' when I actually had to leave due to unsafe working conditions during construction. Took me 3 months and an appeal hearing to get it overturned. NYS Department of Labor assumes the worst about every claim.
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