NY unemployment card still not arrived - working partial hours and claiming benefits

The NY unemployment debit card typically arrives 7-10 business days after your first payment is processed - not after you first claim. Have you checked your payment history on the NY DOL website to see if any payments have been released yet? Sometimes they hold the first payment for verification, especially with partial unemployment claims where they're cross-checking your reported hours.

pending usually means they reviewing ur claim still. mine was pending for like 4 weeks b4 i got paid. the card comes after they approve u

Your employer suddenly giving you 40 hours after getting the unemployment notice is a classic retaliation tactic. They do this hoping you'll stop claiming, then they'll cut your hours again in a few weeks. Keep documenting your hours each week. Even if you have one week you can't claim, continue claiming in the weeks where your hours are reduced. As for the card, it won't ship until after your first payment is approved, which can take 2-6 weeks for partial claims since they require additional verification.

Has ANYONE been able to get through to the NYS unemployment phone line recently??!! I've been calling for TWO WEEKS trying to ask about my card status and it's either busy signal or it hangs up automatically. This is RIDICULOUS. How are we supposed to get help when the system is designed to make it impossible to talk to a human being?!?

I had the same exact situation with my partial unemployment. When I finally got through to an agent (after days of trying), they told me they were holding my payments because they needed to verify my reduced hours with my employer. Apparently when hours fluctuate a lot, it triggers a review process. The agent released my payments right away once I explained the situation, and my card arrived 8 days later. After wasting so much time trying to call, I ended up using this service called Claimyr that got me through to an unemployment agent in about 20 minutes instead of spending days redialing. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE that shows how it works. It was such a relief to finally talk to someone who could actually help with my claim.

my friend just went through this!!! her job kept changing her hours too, some weeks giving her almost nothing and then one week giving her tons of hours right after she filed for unemployment. she said that when you file for partial unemployment in NY, they look at your average hours over multiple weeks, not just one week. so even if you have one week with 40 hours, if your other weeks are low, you might still qualify overall. also, she didn't get her card for like 3 weeks after her first payment was approved.

To address your follow-up question - yes, 'pending' status means they haven't made a determination on your claim yet. This is normal for partial unemployment claims where hours fluctuate, as the system requires additional verification. Regarding the averaging question you asked someone else - New York doesn't technically use an 'averaging' system. Instead, they calculate your benefits on a week-by-week basis. For each week, they check if you worked fewer than 4 days AND earned less than $595 (the current maximum threshold for 2025). If you meet both criteria for a given week, you qualify for partial benefits for that week only. So your one 40-hour week won't disqualify you for other weeks, but you won't receive benefits for that specific week.

Exactly. Keep claiming week by week. For any week you work 4+ days OR earn $595+, you'll report that and won't receive benefits for that week only. But you'll still be in the system and can claim for future weeks when your hours are reduced again. As for speeding up your pending status - contacting an agent can help, as they can sometimes release payments that are stuck in review. Based on current processing times, if you're still pending after 3-4 weeks, it's definitely worth trying to speak with someone.