NY unemployment benefits reduced by $175 weekly - can't reach anyone at DOL

yep same thing happened to me last month. suddenly cut by like $200. turns out they were taking child support out but NOBODY TOLD ME this would happen!! had to find out myself by sitting on hold for 3hrs. check if u have any garnishments or court orders?

The DOL should have sent you a monetary determination notice with your weekly benefit amount and any deductions. Check your NY.gov inbox messages and see if there's any notification there. Also, you should be able to see a breakdown of your payment showing the deduction reason on your payment history page if you click on the individual payment.

This sounds like either a garnishment kicking in or they've recalculated your benefit amount. Sometimes there can be a delay between when a garnishment order is received and when it starts being applied to your benefits. If you have student loans, child support, or any other court-ordered payments, those can be taken directly from unemployment. The other possibility is they reviewed your wage records and found a discrepancy. This happened to me when they initially missed some of my 1099 income and then adjusted my weekly benefit amount down after they caught it. You absolutely need to speak with someone. I was in your same position last year and couldn't get through after days of calling. I finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that gets you through to an agent by navigating the phone system. Cost a bit but got me through in about 20 minutes after days of trying myself. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE

Is it EXACTLY $175 less or is that approximate? If it's exactly $175, check if you have federal taxes being withheld now. That would be about right for a $504 benefit.

If it's exactly $175, that's suspicious. Federal tax withholding should be 10% of your benefit amount (which would be about $50 from a $504 payment), not $175. Student loan garnishments are typically 15%, which would be closer to $75. Something else must be going on here. Did you receive any communications from the Treasury Offset Program (TOP)? Sometimes they can garnish for federal debts without the state unemployment office sending a separate notice.

NYSDOL is THE WORST!!!! They did this to me twice!!! First time was a "system error" and second time they said it was an "offset for overpayment" from 3 YEARS AGO that I never even knew about!!!! They will NEVER call you back even when they promise. I spent DAYS trying to reach someone. The system is DESIGNED to frustrate people so they give up. Don't give up!!!! Keep calling!!!!!

this is probably a tax thing. i was confused too when my payments suddenly changed. turns out my withholding preferences got reset somehow. have you been on unemployment before? maybe they pulled settings from an old claim?

I checked the NYSDOL handbook, and there's actually a specific formula they use for student loan garnishments. It's 15% of your disposable income, which they calculate as your weekly benefit amount minus 30 times the federal minimum wage per hour. This can work out to more than you'd expect. Based on your benefit amount of $504, the calculation would be: $504 - (30 × $7.25) = $504 - $217.50 = $286.50 15% of $286.50 = $42.98 So that's not it either unless there are multiple garnishments happening at once. You really need to speak with someone who can look at your account details.

try calling EXACTLY at 8:00am when they open. thats how i finally got thru. or try calling at 7:55 and working thru the menu so ur in queue right at 8. good luck!!

Update: I finally got through!!! Used the Claimyr service that someone suggested above and spoke with a representative. Turns out there was a glitch in their system that applied my tax withholding AND student loan garnishment retroactively, so they took out 8 weeks worth of deductions all at once! The rep submitted a correction request and said my next payment should be back to normal, and they'll refund the extra amount they took out within 2-3 weeks. Thank you all for your help and suggestions!