Does care provider income count as earnings when filing NYS Department of Labor weekly claims?
I've been receiving unemployment benefits for about 6 weeks now and just started providing care services for my elderly neighbor through a local program. They're paying me $15/hour for about 20 hours a week. Do I need to report this as income on my weekly claim certification with NYS Department of Labor? I'm worried about getting an overpayment notice if I don't report it correctly, but I also don't want to lose my benefits if I don't have to. The income is through a care provider program, not a regular W-2 job. Anyone know how this works?
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CaptainAwesome
Yes, you absolutely need to report ANY income you earn while collecting unemployment benefits. NYS Department of Labor requires you to report all wages, including care provider payments, on your weekly claim. The good news is you can still receive partial benefits if your earnings are under a certain threshold. For your weekly benefit amount, you can earn up to 25% without any reduction, and then they reduce your benefits dollar-for-dollar after that up to 1.5 times your weekly benefit rate.
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Amara Okafor
•Thanks for the info! So if my weekly benefit is $400, I can earn up to $100 without any reduction? And then after that it gets reduced?
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Yuki Tanaka
definitely report it! i made the mistake of not reporting some cash work i did and got hit with a huge overpayment demand. they found out somehow and said i owed back like $2800. not worth the risk
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Amara Okafor
•Oh wow, that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. How did they find out about your cash work?
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Yuki Tanaka
•honestly not sure but i think the person paying me reported it somewhere or it showed up on their taxes. the nys department of labor investigates these things more than you'd think
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Esmeralda Gómez
I had a similar situation when I was doing some freelance work while on unemployment. The key thing is to report the GROSS amount you earned during the week you actually performed the work, not when you got paid. So if you worked 20 hours at $15/hour in week 1 but didn't get paid until week 3, you report the $300 in week 1. NYS Department of Labor is very specific about this timing.
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Klaus Schmidt
•Wait, really? I've been reporting it when I get paid, not when I worked. Should I call them to fix this?
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Esmeralda Gómez
•You should definitely contact NYS Department of Labor to clarify your reporting. It's better to correct it now than deal with an overpayment later. Though honestly, getting through on the phone is nearly impossible these days.
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Aisha Patel
I was struggling to reach anyone at NYS Department of Labor about a similar income reporting question for weeks. Kept getting disconnected or stuck on hold for hours. Finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually gets you through to a real agent. There's a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Literally got connected within 20 minutes and got my question answered. Might be worth checking out if you need to clarify anything with them directly.
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LilMama23
•how much does that cost though? seems like something that should be free
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Aisha Patel
•I mean, yeah, calling should be free but when you can't get through for weeks and your benefits are at stake, sometimes you need other options. The peace of mind was worth it for me.
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Dmitri Volkov
The whole system is ridiculous. You're trying to work and support yourself and they make it so complicated to figure out what to report. I spent 3 hours on hold last week just to ask about reporting some gig work income and never got through to anyone. Meanwhile they expect perfect compliance or they'll come after you for overpayments. It's like they set you up to fail.
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LilMama23
•totally agree, the nys department of labor makes everything so confusing on purpose
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