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The unemployment system is SO broken. They deny legitimate claims all the time and then make you jump through hoops to prove you deserve benefits. Meanwhile bills keep piling up and families suffer. NYS Department of Labor doesn't care about the massive effects their mistakes have on real people's lives!!
Make sure you're documenting everything during this process - all the financial hardship, medical issues from stress, anything related to how this wrongful denial is affecting your life. If you win your appeal, you'll get back pay for all the weeks you should have been receiving benefits. Don't give up, wrongful denials get overturned all the time once you get a real person to review the case.
The NY system is just BROKEN. I waited 8 weeks last year and when I finally got through they told me I had been approved 3 weeks earlier but nobody bothered to update my account! The whole NYS Department of Labor system needs an overhaul.
NY does take longer but there are reasons. Higher cost of living means higher benefit amounts so they verify more carefully. Plus the sheer population - NYS Department of Labor handles way more claims than smaller states. It's frustrating but the thoroughness actually protects legitimate claimants from system abuse that could slow things down even more.
Make sure he meets all the job search requirements too! Even though he's on disability, if he's collecting unemployment he still needs to be actively looking for work and documenting it. The NYS Department of Labor doesn't care about your other benefits when it comes to the work search requirement.
Good point! Since he can only work part-time due to his disability, can he limit his job search to part-time positions only?
This whole system is so confusing. Why can't they just have clear answers on their website about these common situations? I swear the NYS Department of Labor makes everything more complicated than it needs to be.
Just went through this whole process last month when my company downsized. The good news is that as long as your employer has been paying their unemployment taxes to the NYS Department of Labor, you'll be eligible for benefits if you need them. When I called to check my claim status I had trouble getting through to anyone at the NYS Department of Labor though. Someone recommended using claimyr.com to help get through to agents faster - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Made the whole process way less stressful.
How do you know if your employer has been paying their taxes properly? Is there a way to check that?
QuantumQuasar
If you're having trouble reaching someone at NYS Department of Labor to discuss your case, I had good luck using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an actual agent. They handle the calling and waiting for you, which saved me hours of being on hold. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. It was really helpful for getting clarification on my disqualification before I filed my appeal.
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Ava Martinez
•Thanks, I'll check that out. I've been trying to call for days but can never get through.
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Keisha Jackson
same thing happened to my friend except it turned out she accidentally said something wrong when she filed that made it sound like she quit voluntarily. The good news is that if you have proof you were laid off the appeal process usually works in your favor. just make sure you meet that 30 day deadline!
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