congrats!! this gives me hope. my hearing is in 2 weeks and ive been a wreck about it

Thanks for sharing your success story! I'm currently preparing for my own appeal hearing after being denied for "voluntary quit" when I actually resigned due to unsafe working conditions. Your point about practicing testimony out loud is really smart - I hadn't thought of that but I can already tell I'm going to be nervous. Did you have legal representation or did you represent yourself? I'm trying to decide if it's worth hiring an attorney or if I can handle it on my own like you did.

Just a heads up - if you're running QB Desktop 2022 or older, you might need to manually download the latest tax tables to get the correct 2025 wage base limits. The automatic updates sometimes don't include all the state-specific changes for unemployment insurance.

I work in payroll for a small business in NY and we had this exact same issue earlier this year. After updating the wage base in QB, make sure you also run a liability adjustment report to see if any employees were incorrectly charged UI tax on wages above $12,800. You might need to process manual adjustments for those employees and file amended returns with NYS Department of Labor if the overage was significant. Also, double-check that your company's SUI rate is correct in the system - sometimes QB doesn't pull the right rate from your Department of Labor account.

One thing to remember is that unemployment insurance is meant to be insurance - you pay premiums (taxes) and sometimes you have claims against the policy. It's the cost of doing business with employees. Focus on good hiring practices and clear documentation rather than worrying too much about one legitimate claim.

As someone who's been through this recently, I can confirm what others are saying about responding to NYS Department of Labor forms promptly. Even though it feels intimidating as a first-time employer dealing with this, the process is pretty straightforward. Just be honest about the circumstances - if it was truly a layoff due to business conditions, that's exactly what unemployment insurance is designed to cover. Your tax rate might increase slightly over time, but it's gradual and based on your overall experience rating, not just one claim. The key is staying on top of any correspondence from NYS Department of Labor and keeping good records of employment decisions going forward.

Thanks everyone for the detailed responses! This is really helpful. I think I understand the basics now - report gross income, they reduce benefits by 25% of anything over $143, and my claim stays active even if I earn too much one week. One more question though - since this is freelance web design work, how do I handle it if the client pays me with a 1099 at the end of the year instead of weekly? Do I still report it the week I do the work even though I haven't actually received payment yet? And should I be setting aside money for taxes on both the freelance income AND the unemployment benefits?

One thing to add about freelance work while on unemployment - make sure you understand the difference between "work" and "earnings" when reporting. Even if you spend 10 hours working on a project but haven't finished it yet (so no payment earned), you still need to report those work hours on your weekly claim. NYS Department of Labor looks at both the amount you earned AND the number of days you worked. If you work 4 or more days in a week, even for just a few hours each day, it can affect your benefits differently than just the earnings calculation. I learned this the hard way when I was doing small freelance projects - I was only reporting the money but not the actual work days, which caused issues later when they audited my claim.

If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask questions about this, I used a service called Claimyr recently that actually got me connected to a real agent. You can check it out at claimyr.com - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. It was super helpful when I had questions about my partial benefit calculation and couldn't get through on the regular phone lines.

I went through this exact situation last year! The key thing to remember is that you need to be "totally or partially unemployed" to qualify, which you definitely are since you lost your main job. When you file your weekly claims, make sure to report your retail hours and earnings accurately. Also, keep good records of your work schedule and pay stubs from the part-time job - NYS Department of Labor sometimes asks for documentation during reviews. One tip: if your retail hours vary week to week, your unemployment benefit will adjust accordingly, so some weeks you might get more UI benefits than others depending on how much you worked.