Check your Way2Go card balance online or call the number on the back - sometimes the money hits but you don't get a notification right away. Also make sure you're checking the right card if you have multiple ones!

Same thing happened to me last month! Got the text on a Tuesday and the money didn't hit my Way2Go until Thursday morning. First payments can be slower than usual - they gotta process everything through their system. Just keep checking your balance every few hours, it'll show up soon 👍

Just to update everyone - my payment actually came through yesterday morning! It took exactly 4 business days after they fixed the fraud flag. All 12 weeks of back payments came at once, which was a huge relief. Thanks to everyone who offered advice!

That's so encouraging to hear @Ryan Andre got their payment so quickly! I'm still waiting (it's been 2 business days since they told me it was fixed) but your timeline gives me hope. I'm checking my account obsessively every few hours lol. Did you get any kind of notification when the payment was processed, or did it just show up in your bank account?

The whole fraud thing is out of control right now. My neighbor works for NYSDOL (not in fraud dept tho) and she said they're completely overwhelmed with all the identity verification backlogs. There was some massive data breach earlier this year and now they're being super cautious with everything. Annoying for us but I guess better than paying out to scammers.

UPDATE: Just saw that all my backpay finally came through! It took exactly 32 days from when my account was flagged until resolution. Hang in there everyone - keep certifying weekly and eventually it should resolve.

The whole system is ridiculous honestly. I worked for 8 months straight and still had issues with my claim because my previous employer reported my wages wrong. NYS Department of Labor makes everything so unnecessarily complicated with all these quarter calculations and base periods. Why can't they just say 'work X months, get benefits' like normal people would understand??

Tell your cousin to check her pay stubs and add up her quarterly earnings. That's the easiest way to know for sure. The NYS Department of Labor base period thing makes more sense when you actually calculate it out with real numbers.

basically if u get a w2 it counts, if u get 1099 it doesnt... but there are some exceptions like if u were misclassified as contractor when u should have been employee but thats a whole other mess to deal with

One thing that might help you understand this better is to look at your paystubs from your retail job - you should see a line item for "unemployment tax" or "UI tax" being deducted. That's how you know those wages are covered. For your 1099 work and Etsy sales, you wouldn't see those deductions because you're considered self-employed for those. The key distinction is whether you're an employee (W-2) or independent contractor/self-employed (1099). When you file your claim, NYS DOL will verify your covered wages through employer reports, so just be honest about all your income sources and let them sort out what counts.