Can you make money while on unemployment benefits in NY - what are the limits?

You can definitely work part-time while collecting unemployment in NY, but you MUST report all earnings when you file your weekly claim. NYS Department of Labor has specific rules - they'll reduce your benefit by 25% of whatever you earn over $143 per week. So if you earn $300, they'll subtract 25% of $157 ($300-$143=$157), which is about $39 from your weekly benefit. You'll still get most of your unemployment plus your work income.

just be super careful about reporting everything correctly. i made the mistake of not reporting some cash work i did and got hit with an overpayment notice months later. they wanted me to pay back like $2000 plus penalties. not worth the risk

The key thing is understanding the partial unemployment rules. You report GROSS earnings (before taxes) for any work done during the week you're claiming. NYS Department of Labor calculates it as: if you earn more than $143 in a week, they reduce your benefit by 25% of the amount over $143. If you earn more than your weekly benefit rate plus $143, you get no unemployment that week but your claim stays active.

I've been trying to call NYS Department of Labor for weeks to ask about this exact situation but their phone lines are impossible. Every time I call I either get a busy signal or get disconnected after waiting on hold for 2+ hours. How is anyone supposed to get clarification on these rules? The website isn't clear about freelance work specifically.

ugh the whole system is such a nightmare. why make it so complicated? i had a similar situation with uber driving and it took months to sort out because i reported it wrong the first few times. they really need to make this clearer

Just to be extra clear since there's been some confusion in this thread - for freelance work you report the gross amount you earned during the week you're filing for, NOT when you get paid. So if you do $400 worth of work this week but don't get paid until next month, you still report that $400 this week. And yes, always report gross income before any taxes or deductions.

Thanks everyone for the detailed responses! This is really helpful. I think I understand the basics now - report gross income, they reduce benefits by 25% of anything over $143, and my claim stays active even if I earn too much one week. One more question though - since this is freelance web design work, how do I handle it if the client pays me with a 1099 at the end of the year instead of weekly? Do I still report it the week I do the work even though I haven't actually received payment yet? And should I be setting aside money for taxes on both the freelance income AND the unemployment benefits?

One thing to add about freelance work while on unemployment - make sure you understand the difference between "work" and "earnings" when reporting. Even if you spend 10 hours working on a project but haven't finished it yet (so no payment earned), you still need to report those work hours on your weekly claim. NYS Department of Labor looks at both the amount you earned AND the number of days you worked. If you work 4 or more days in a week, even for just a few hours each day, it can affect your benefits differently than just the earnings calculation. I learned this the hard way when I was doing small freelance projects - I was only reporting the money but not the actual work days, which caused issues later when they audited my claim.