How long does an unemployment claim stay open with NYS Department of Labor before it expires?
I've been on unemployment for about 8 months now and I'm wondering how much longer my claim will stay active. I know there's a benefit year but I'm not sure exactly when mine ends or what happens after that. Do I need to reapply or does it automatically renew? I still have some money left on my claim but I'm worried about it just disappearing one day. Has anyone had their claim expire and had to start over?
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Ryder Everingham
Your unemployment claim stays open for exactly one benefit year from the date you first filed. In New York, that's 52 weeks. You can check your exact benefit year end date by logging into your my.ny.gov account and looking at your claim summary. Even if you have money left on your claim, once that benefit year ends, your claim closes and you'd need to file a new claim if you're still unemployed.
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Aisha Jackson
•Thanks! I found my benefit year end date - it's in March. So even if I still have like $2000 left in my claim, it just goes away?
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Lilly Curtis
Yeah the benefit year thing caught me off guard too. I had about $1500 left when mine expired last year. You can't just extend it - you have to file a completely new claim. The good news is if you've been working some during your benefit year, your new claim might be based on higher wages and you could get more money per week.
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Leo Simmons
•Wait, so if I've been doing some part-time work while collecting, that actually helps my next claim? I thought it would hurt it.
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Lilly Curtis
•As long as you've been reporting it correctly on your weekly claims, yeah it can help. NYS Department of Labor looks at your wages from the past 18 months when calculating a new claim.
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Lindsey Fry
I had such a hard time getting through to NYS Department of Labor when my claim was about to expire. Spent hours on hold just to ask basic questions about refiling. Finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually got me connected to an agent in like 10 minutes. They have a video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI. Saved me so much frustration dealing with their phone system.
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Saleem Vaziri
•Interesting, never heard of that before. Did they charge you anything for it?
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Lindsey Fry
•They do charge but it was worth it to actually talk to someone. Way better than calling 50 times and getting hung up on.
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Kayla Morgan
Just to add - make sure you file your new claim the week AFTER your benefit year ends, not before. I made that mistake and it caused all sorts of confusion with my dates and delayed everything by like 3 weeks.
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James Maki
ugh this whole system is so confusing why cant they just make it simple!! i never know when anything expires or what im supposed to do
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Ryder Everingham
•I know it's frustrating but the dates are all clearly listed in your online account. The system actually works pretty well once you understand the basic rules about benefit years.
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Lourdes Fox
One thing that helped me was setting a calendar reminder about 2 months before my benefit year end date so I could start preparing. Also, if you're getting close to the end and still actively job searching, you might want to start gathering your wage documents early for the new claim. The transition can be smoother if you have all your paperwork ready to go. And definitely keep certifying every week right up until your benefit year ends - don't let any weeks lapse thinking it doesn't matter.
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Lauren Zeb
•That's really smart advice about the calendar reminder! I wish I had thought of that earlier. Quick question though - when you say gather wage documents, do you mean like pay stubs from any part-time work I've been doing while on unemployment? Or do they need something else specific for the new claim?
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