How long does it take NYS Department of Labor to review unemployment claim - been waiting 5 weeks
Filed my unemployment claim back in early January and it's still showing 'under review' status. I lost my job at a manufacturing plant when they downsized and thought this would be straightforward since I have all my paperwork. Called the NYS Department of Labor hotline multiple times but either get busy signals or sit on hold for hours before getting disconnected. My savings are running low and I really need to know if this timeline is normal. Has anyone else experienced such long review periods? I'm starting to panic about rent next month.
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Quinn Herbert
Review times vary a lot depending on your situation. For straightforward layoffs like yours, it usually takes 2-3 weeks unless there's something that triggers adjudication. Since you're at 5 weeks, there might be an issue they need to investigate. Check your my.ny.gov account to see if there are any pending items requiring documentation. Sometimes employers contest claims or there are wage verification delays that slow things down.
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Shelby Bauman
•I checked my account yesterday and don't see any pending items or requests for additional info. Just says 'claim under review' with no other details. Should I be worried?
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Salim Nasir
ugh same thing happened to me last year, took 6 weeks before they finally approved it. no explanation for the delay either, just suddenly got approved one day
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Hazel Garcia
If you're hitting dead ends with the regular phone lines, I had success using Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to an actual NYS Department of Labor agent. They have a system that handles the calling for you and connects you when someone picks up. Watched their demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI and it looked legit. Cost some money but was worth it to finally talk to someone who could check my claim status and explain what was happening.
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Shelby Bauman
•Never heard of that service before. Did they actually help you figure out why your claim was delayed?
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Hazel Garcia
•Yeah, turned out my employer had submitted conflicting information about my termination date which put my claim into manual review. The agent was able to see that in their system and told me exactly what documentation I needed to submit to clear it up.
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Laila Fury
The NYS Department of Labor is completely overwhelmed and understaffed. They're probably dealing with a backlog from the holidays plus all the new claims from January layoffs. I've been dealing with them for months on an overpayment issue and it's like pulling teeth to get any response. The system is broken.
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Geoff Richards
Wait, you filed in early January and it's been 5 weeks? That means you filed like the first week of January? Because if you filed after January 15th it hasn't been 5 weeks yet. Just want to make sure the timeline is right because that affects whether this is actually an unusual delay or not.
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Shelby Bauman
•Filed January 3rd, so yeah it's been 5 weeks as of this week. My last day of work was December 30th.
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Simon White
Manufacturing layoffs sometimes get extra scrutiny because they want to verify it wasn't a voluntary quit or misconduct termination. Did you get any severance or notice pay? That can also complicate the timeline because they need to determine your benefit start date. The good news is that once approved, you'll get backpay to your benefit year start date.
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Shelby Bauman
•Got two weeks severance but my employer told me that wouldn't affect my unemployment eligibility. Now I'm wondering if that's what's causing the delay.
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