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Wait I thought if you worked long enough you automatically qualified? This is confusing because my neighbor said she got unemployment after retiring but maybe she was laid off and I misunderstood.
The unemployment rate is just a statistic about how many people are unemployed vs employed. It has nothing to do with your specific claim approval. Your claim gets approved based on whether you worked enough quarters, earned enough wages, and had a qualifying separation reason. The rate could be 2% or 10% and it wouldn't change the eligibility rules.
I think your friend is confusing things. Maybe they're thinking about how during recessions sometimes there are temporary program changes or funding issues, but for regular UI claims the unemployment rate doesn't matter. NYS Department of Labor follows the same eligibility rules regardless of the economic climate.
The whole system is BROKEN. They deny legitimate claims all the time and then make YOU prove you deserve benefits. Automation has been destroying jobs for decades and they still don't have proper procedures for handling these cases. Fight this hard because they're hoping you'll just give up.
Actually this is a really interesting case because unemployment law has always recognized technological displacement as a valid reason for benefits. The fact that machines are doing work formerly done by humans is exactly the kind of economic shift unemployment insurance was designed to help with. Your appeal should be straightforward if you have proper documentation of the automation implementation.
I had a nightmare trying to get through to NYS Department of Labor when I was dealing with a misconduct determination. Spent hours on hold every day for weeks. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that connects you directly to unemployment agents by phone. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Got through to someone in 15 minutes instead of waiting all day. Really helped me explain my situation properly and get my claim approved.
The whole system is rigged against workers anyway. They make it SO hard to get benefits even when you deserve them. Employers can just claim anything is misconduct and then you have to fight it for months.
Khalid Howes
The whole unemployment system is designed to deny claims and make people give up. They know most people can't afford to wait months for appeals. It's disgusting how they treat people who are already struggling financially.
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Ben Cooper
hang in there - appeals do work if you have the right documentation. also make sure you keep filing your weekly claims even while the appeal is pending or you'll lose those weeks
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Darcy Moore
•Wait really? I stopped filing because I thought there was no point since I was denied. Can I still file for the weeks I missed?
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