Did unemployment go up in NY recently - my claim amount seems different?
I've been getting $420 weekly for the past 6 months but I just noticed my latest payment was only $398. I haven't had any changes to my work history or anything like that. Did unemployment go up or did NYS Department of Labor change something? My account doesn't show any explanation for why the amount dropped. Has anyone else noticed their weekly benefit amount changing recently?
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Brianna Muhammad
There might be automatic deductions happening - check if they're taking out taxes or if there's an overpayment being recovered. Sometimes NYS Department of Labor will start collecting on old overpayments without much notice. Log into your my.ny.gov account and look at the payment breakdown details.
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Camila Castillo
•Good point about the taxes. I'll check my payment history and see if there's a breakdown showing what was deducted.
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JaylinCharles
mine went down too!! from $445 to $432 last week and I have no idea why. called NYS Department of Labor three times but kept getting disconnected after waiting forever
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Eloise Kendrick
•If you're having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor by phone, you might want to check out claimyr.com - they help people get through to unemployment agents. There's a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. I used them when I needed to resolve a similar payment issue.
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Lucas Schmidt
They probably didn't increase unemployment rates, but there could be new deductions. Sometimes they add mandatory job training fees or change the tax withholding percentages. The NYS Department of Labor website should have updated info about any policy changes that affect weekly benefit amounts.
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Freya Collins
•Wait what job training fees? I haven't heard about that before. Is that something new they're doing?
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Lucas Schmidt
•I might be thinking of another program - I'm not 100% sure about the training fees. But definitely check for tax changes or overpayment recovery.
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LongPeri
This happened to me last year and it turned out NYS Department of Labor was collecting on an overpayment from 2023 that I didn't even know about. They just started taking $25 per week without telling me. You should definitely call and ask for a detailed explanation of any deductions.
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Javier Hernandez
I had a similar issue a few months ago where my weekly amount dropped unexpectedly. It ended up being federal tax withholding that got automatically adjusted - apparently they can change the withholding percentage based on your total benefit year earnings. Check your payment history in the NYS DOL portal and look for any line items showing tax deductions or adjustments. You can also try messaging them through the secure inbox in your account, sometimes that gets faster responses than calling.
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