How to speed up unemployment process with NYS Department of Labor - claim pending 6 weeks
My unemployment claim has been sitting in pending status for 6 weeks now and I'm getting desperate. Filed in early December and still nothing. I've been certifying weekly but no payments have come through. The my.ny.gov portal just shows 'claim under review' with no other details. I've tried calling the NYS Department of Labor like 50 times but either get busy signal or hung up on after waiting 2+ hours. Is there anything I can do to speed this up? I'm behind on rent and really need these benefits processed faster.
14 comments
Join the conversation
Kevin Bell
Six weeks is definitely longer than normal processing time. Have you checked if there are any outstanding issues requiring documentation? Sometimes the system flags claims for identity verification or wage discrepancies without clearly notifying you. Log into your my.ny.gov account and look under 'correspondence' or 'to-do items' - there might be something you missed that's holding up your claim.
0 coins
Ella Cofer
•I checked everywhere in my account and don't see any pending items or correspondence. The only thing it shows is my weekly certifications which I've been doing religiously every week.
0 coins
Savannah Glover
This happened to my cousin last year. Turns out the NYS Department of Labor was waiting for wage verification from one of his previous employers who was being slow to respond. The system doesn't always tell you what specific issue is causing the delay. You might need to contact your former employers directly to make sure they've submitted their wage information to NYS Department of Labor.
0 coins
Ella Cofer
•That's a good point. I worked for 3 different companies in the past 18 months. How would I know which one is holding things up?
0 coins
Felix Grigori
ugh this is SO frustrating!! I'm in week 4 of waiting and thought that was bad. the whole system is broken and they don't care that people are struggling to pay bills while they take forever to process simple claims
0 coins
Felicity Bud
I had success reaching someone at NYS Department of Labor using Claimyr (claimyr.com). It's a service that helps you get through to actual agents instead of sitting on hold forever. They have this video demo showing how it works: https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI. Basically they handle the calling and waiting for you, then connect you when a real person picks up. I was able to find out my claim was stuck because of a minor address discrepancy that I could fix immediately once I knew about it.
0 coins
Ella Cofer
•This sounds too good to be true but at this point I'm willing to try anything. Did they actually get you connected to someone who could help with your specific claim?
0 coins
Felicity Bud
•Yes, within like 2 days I was talking to an actual NYS Department of Labor rep who could see my file and explain exactly what was wrong. Way better than calling myself and getting nowhere.
0 coins
Max Reyes
Same boat here friend. Been waiting since November and getting really worried about my situation too. Have you tried reaching out to your state assemblyperson's office? Sometimes they can help expedite things with state agencies
0 coins
Kevin Bell
•That's actually solid advice. Legislative offices often have direct contacts at NYS Department of Labor for constituent services. They can sometimes get answers when regular channels aren't working.
0 coins
Mikayla Davison
The whole system is designed to wear you down and make you give up. They probably hope half the people will just stop trying so they don't have to pay out benefits. It's criminal how they treat people who paid into this system their whole working lives!!!
0 coins
Adrian Connor
Try calling right at 8am when they open or during lunch hours around 1pm. Those seem to be the best times to actually get through. Also make sure you have your confirmation number ready from when you first filed
0 coins
Carmen Reyes
I feel your pain - the waiting is absolutely brutal when you're trying to keep up with bills. One thing that helped me was documenting everything in a spreadsheet: dates I called, reference numbers, what representatives told me (if I got through), etc. This documentation became really useful when I finally reached someone who could actually help. Also, if you haven't already, try sending a secure message through the my.ny.gov portal explaining your situation and how long you've been waiting. Sometimes the written requests get routed to different people than the phone calls. Hang in there - I know it feels hopeless but eventually it does get resolved.
0 coins
Demi Lagos
•This is really helpful advice! I haven't tried sending a secure message through the portal yet - I was so focused on trying to call that I didn't think about other contact methods. The documentation spreadsheet is a great idea too, I wish I had started that from the beginning. Did you find that the secure messages actually got responses, or was it just another dead end?
0 coins