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THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS BROKEN regardless of what the 'official' unemployment rate says!! I've been waiting 6 weeks for my appeal hearing and they keep rescheduling it. Meanwhile bills are piling up and they act like we're just numbers in their system.
Similar thing happened to my brother last year - he was convinced the delays were because unemployment was spiking but it turned out to be just normal NYS Department of Labor processes. Once he got through to someone who could explain what they needed, everything moved pretty quickly. Don't stress too much about the bigger picture stuff.
Don't forget you also have to pay taxes on unemployment benefits! They don't automatically withhold federal taxes so you might want to have them take out 10% or set money aside. I learned this the hard way last year.
The calculation is so weird though like why 1/26th of your highest quarter instead of just basing it on your last few paychecks? Makes no sense to me and I ended up getting way less than I thought I would
The whole system is a mess regardless of who's in office! I filed claims during both periods and NYS Department of Labor always finds ways to make things complicated. At least now they're not dealing with all those federal programs that kept changing every few months.
I was in a similar situation last year and had such a hard time getting through to NYS Department of Labor to ask questions about partial benefits. The phone lines are always jammed. I ended up using this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get connected to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Made it so much easier to get clarification on the partial benefit calculations.
Toot-n-Mighty
Wait so if I've only been working my current job for like 6 months, what happens? Do they use my previous job's wages too or am I just out of luck?
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Ahooker-Equator
They'll use wages from all qualifying employers during your base period, so yes, your previous job's wages would count as long as you worked during those quarters. You need to have earned at least $2,700 total during your base period to qualify for benefits at all.
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