EVERYONE AFFECTED BY THIS NEEDS TO REPORT IT TO THE STATE COMPTROLLER'S OFFICE!!! If enough of us report this predatory practice, they'll be forced to investigate. I filed a complaint last week and received confirmation they're looking into these "systematic errors" - which I think is just their excuse for trying to squeeze extra money out of desperate people. The more complaints they get, the more pressure there will be to fix it and potentially refund those bogus interest charges to people who paid them out of fear.

This is absolutely infuriating! I'm dealing with the exact same situation right now - got a payment plan set up in February and have been making every single payment on time, then BAM! Last week I get this threatening letter demanding full payment by a date that had already passed when I received it. The interest they're trying to charge is more than my original monthly payment amount! What really gets me is that when I originally called to set up the payment plan, the agent assured me this would resolve everything and there would be no additional fees as long as I kept up with payments. Now they're acting like the payment plan never existed and trying to collect interest that was never disclosed. I'm definitely going to try that Claimyr service and use the specific language about "Payment Plan Validation Review" - thank you to everyone who shared those tips! This whole situation feels like they're deliberately trying to confuse and intimidate people into paying money they may not even owe. How is this legal?

Same boat here. Got unemployment for 6 months last year and totally forgot about taxes. Had to pay $900 extra when I filed. This year I'm having 15% withheld just to be safe.

I'm in a similar situation and just found out about this tax issue. For those asking about getting the 1099-G form, you can access it online through the NYS Department of Labor website under "View & Print Your 1099-G" section. Also, I called them last week and they said you can request tax withholding at any time during your claim - it doesn't just apply to future payments, you can also make estimated quarterly payments to cover what you've already received. Don't panic, there are options to handle this!

wait im confused about the quarters too... so if i filed in january 2025 what quarters would they use?? i worked at walmart from march 2024 to november 2024 and made like $18000 total

The whole quarterly system is so unnecessarily complicated! Why can't they just use your last year of earnings like a normal person would think? I spent hours trying to figure this out when I got laid off and the NYS Department of Labor website explains it terribly.

Just file NOW. I've been through this system multiple times and every day you wait is money out of your pocket. The NYS Department of Labor website is pretty straightforward for filing your initial claim.

I went through this exact situation last year when I got laid off from my retail job. Everyone's right - file immediately! I waited 10 days thinking I had plenty of time and lost those benefits forever. NYS doesn't backdate to your last day of work, your benefit week starts when you actually submit the claim. The online application at labor.ny.gov is pretty user-friendly and you'll get a confirmation number right away. Don't make the same mistake I did - every day counts when it comes to your financial security.

I'm dealing with this same issue right now - filed a new claim last week but have 2 unpaid weeks from my old claim that I'm worried about losing. Reading through everyone's advice here is really helpful! Quick question for those who successfully got their back pay - when you called and got the right person, did they need you to re-certify for those weeks over the phone, or did they just process the payments based on your previous certifications? I certified for those weeks when they were due originally but never got paid, so I'm wondering if I'll need to go through the whole certification process again or if they can just release the payments that were already approved but never sent out. Also planning to try that early morning Monday call strategy - seems like that's when you're most likely to get through to someone who actually knows what they're doing!

I went through this exact same thing about a year ago and it was so stressful! You definitely don't lose your back pay when you file a new claim - those are two separate things in their system. I had 6 weeks of unpaid benefits from my previous claim and was panicking when they told me to file new. What finally worked for me was calling the UI customer service line and specifically asking to be transferred to the "Payment Resolution Unit" - that's the department that handles retroactive payments and back pay issues. Regular customer service reps often can't access the tools needed to process payments from previous claim periods. When I got through to the right department, the specialist was able to pull up both my old and new claims simultaneously and process all my missing payments within about 15 minutes. She explained that they see this situation all the time and it's totally fixable - the key is just getting to someone with the right system access. One thing that helped speed up the process was having my old claim confirmation number ready, plus the exact dates of the weeks I was missing payments for. The payments showed up in my account within 5 business days after that call. Don't give up - that money is definitely still yours to claim!