How many times can you apply for unemployment benefits through NYS Department of Labor?
I'm trying to figure out if there's a limit on how many times you can apply for unemployment in New York. I had a claim last year that exhausted and now I'm laid off again from a different job. Can I file a new claim or am I maxed out somehow? The NYS Department of Labor website isn't super clear about this and I don't want to mess anything up by applying if I'm not supposed to.
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Isabella Tucker
You can apply for unemployment multiple times as long as you meet the eligibility requirements each time. Each time you become unemployed through no fault of your own and have sufficient work history, you can file a new claim. There's no lifetime limit on the number of claims you can file with NYS Department of Labor.
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Emma Swift
•That's a relief! So even though I used up all my benefits last year, if I worked enough at my new job I should be able to get benefits again?
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Jayden Hill
The key thing is meeting the base period earnings requirements for each new claim. You need to have earned enough wages in covered employment during your base period. Since you worked at a different job after your last claim, you should have new wages to qualify for a fresh benefit year.
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LordCommander
•What's the minimum you need to earn to qualify again? I'm in a similar situation
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Jayden Hill
•For 2025, you need at least $3,150 in your highest quarter and total base period wages of at least 1.5 times your high quarter. So if your highest quarter was $3,150, you'd need total wages of at least $4,725 during the entire base period.
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Lucy Lam
I've filed three different claims over the past five years and never had an issue. Each time I was laid off I just went through the normal application process on the NYS Department of Labor website. As long as you're not trying to file overlapping claims or anything sketchy like that, you should be fine.
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Aidan Hudson
•Did you have to wait any specific amount of time between claims or could you file right away when you got laid off again?
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Lucy Lam
•No waiting period between claims as long as your previous claim was properly closed. I think there was like a week or two gap between my old job ending and new job starting each time, but that didn't affect anything.
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Zoe Wang
Just make sure your previous claim is totally finished before filing a new one. I had some confusion when I tried to file too quickly and it created complications with my benefit year dates. NYS Department of Labor had to sort it out but it delayed my payments for a few weeks.
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Connor Richards
If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to clarify your situation, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me reach an actual agent when I couldn't get through on my own. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Really helped when I needed to verify my eligibility for a second claim.
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Emma Swift
•Thanks for the tip! I might try that if I run into issues with my application.
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