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unemployment is basically the government paying you while you look for a new job but its not that much money and theres a ton of paperwork. you have to file every week and prove youre looking for work or they cut you off. the whole system is designed to make it hard to get benefits honestly
The 2025 process is much more digital than it used to be. Everything goes through the my.ny.gov portal now. One thing that catches people off guard is that your first payment might be delayed if you have any issues during adjudication - like if they need to verify your employment history or reason for separation. That's when having a way to contact NYS Department of Labor directly becomes really important.
THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS A JOKE!!! I've been calling for THREE WEEKS about my disqualification and they never answer. How are people supposed to survive when they make it impossible to reach anyone???
The NYS Department of Labor system is SO confusing about this stuff! I've been unemployed for 6 months and still don't fully understand how they calculate everything. Sometimes I think they make it complicated on purpose to discourage people from claiming benefits they're entitled to.
Just remember to keep track of your job search activities too. NYS Department of Labor requires 3 work search contacts per week even when you're working part-time and claiming partial benefits.
Wait, I still need to do job searches even though I'm working part-time? I thought that requirement was waived if you had some employment.
The whole system is so confusing! I've been trying to reach someone at NYS Department of Labor for weeks to ask about my benefit amount but can never get through on the phone. The automated system just hangs up on me after being on hold forever.
I had the same problem until I found claimyr.com - they actually got me through to a real NYS Department of Labor agent in like 15 minutes. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me hours of frustration trying to call myself.
Evan Kalinowski
The system is SO frustrating with these timing rules! Two years seems like such an arbitrary cutoff especially when people are genuinely struggling to find work. But yeah unfortunately they're pretty strict about it. Your best bet is definitely checking if that 2024 part-time work qualifies you for anything.
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Victoria Charity
Just want to add - make sure you have all your pay stubs from that part-time work before you try to file. NYS Department of Labor will verify everything anyway but having the documentation ready makes the process smoother. Good luck!
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