Just went through this myself last month. File today if you can - the earlier you file, the earlier your effective date starts. Even if they determine you're not eligible initially, you can appeal and if you win the appeal, you'll get backpay from your original filing date. Don't wait!

I went through something similar when I was terminated for "performance issues" after reporting wage violations to HR. My advice: file immediately and be completely honest about the safety complaints you made. NYS DOL actually protects workers who report safety violations under whistleblower laws, so mentioning that complaint could actually help your case rather than hurt it. When I filed, I included all the details about my complaint and the timeline - it showed a clear pattern of retaliation. The adjudicator sided with me because the timing was too suspicious. Also, keep records of everything related to the unsafe conditions you reported - emails, photos, witness names, dates. This documentation could be crucial if your employer contests the claim.

To answer your tax question from earlier - you can choose to have 10% federal taxes withheld from your UI payments, but you'll still owe state taxes at the end of the year. Many people don't realize unemployment benefits count as income for tax purposes and get surprised come tax season.

Another thing to consider is that if you receive any severance pay, it might affect when you can start collecting benefits. NYS Department of Labor has specific rules about how severance is treated - sometimes you have to wait until your severance period ends before you're eligible. Also, if you do any freelance or part-time work while collecting, you have to report it and it can reduce your weekly benefit amount. Just make sure you're completely honest about any income because they do cross-check with other state agencies.

If you're having trouble getting through to the NYS Department of Labor to ask questions about job market conditions or your claim status, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me reach an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really helped when I couldn't get through the regular phone lines to discuss my job search requirements.

Economics is weird but basically full employment is when everyone who wants a job can find one relatively quickly. The actual percentage changes over time but it's usually considered somewhere between 4-5%. During the 2008 recession unemployment hit like 10% which was way above full employment.

Just a heads up - if you received a large amount in unemployment benefits and didn't have taxes withheld, you might want to consider making estimated tax payments for 2025 if you're still receiving benefits. The IRS can charge penalties if you owe too much at filing time.

I'm in a similar situation and just wanted to share what I learned from my tax preparer. If you didn't have taxes withheld, you'll likely need to pay quarterly estimated taxes going forward to avoid underpayment penalties. The safe harbor rule is to pay at least 90% of this year's tax liability or 100% of last year's (110% if your AGI was over $150K). Also, don't forget that unemployment benefits might push you into a higher tax bracket, so the effective rate could be more than the 22% someone mentioned earlier. I ended up owing about $2,400 on $10,000 in benefits between federal and NY state taxes.

This ID.me verification nightmare is exactly why I switched to documenting everything when dealing with NY unemployment. I keep screenshots of every step, save all confirmation emails, and even record the date/time I completed each process. When this happened to me in December, having that documentation made all the difference. The agent was able to use my timestamps to locate my verification in their system. Pro tip: if you haven't already, log back into your ID.me account and take screenshots of your completed verification status page - sometimes the agents can use that info to manually locate your record in their database. It's crazy that we have to do their job for them, but at least it gets results faster than waiting for their systems to sync properly.

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now and it's driving me crazy! Completed my ID.me verification 8 days ago, have the confirmation email, but when I finally got through to DOL yesterday they said there's no record of it. The agent even suggested I might have done it wrong, which was so frustrating because I literally have proof that it was completed successfully. Reading through all these comments is both helpful and infuriating - helpful because now I know what to ask for (Tier 2 specialist and the identity verification queue check), but infuriating because this is clearly a widespread system problem that DOL should have fixed by now. It's 2025 and their systems can't properly communicate with a third-party verification service? @Giovanni, congratulations on getting yours resolved! Can you share exactly what you said when you asked for the Tier 2 specialist? I want to make sure I use the right terminology when I call back tomorrow. This whole process shouldn't require us to become experts in their internal procedures just to get our own benefits released. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - at least I know I'm not going crazy and this really is a system-wide issue!