NY unemployment claim stuck in review due to misconduct from previous employer - never filed against them?

Yes, this is unfortunately common. When you file for NY unemployment, ALL employers from your base period (usually the last 18 months) are notified and can respond, even if you're only claiming based on your most recent job. This is because eligibility is based on your entire employment history in the qualifying period. The good news is that if your fiancé qualified for enough wage credits from the most recent employer, and that employer isn't contesting, then the 'misconduct' flag from the previous employer might not matter. The priority review typically takes 7-10 business days in my experience.

OMG this EXACT thing happened to me too!!! My old boss from like 2 years ago tried to say I stole (I DIDNT!!!) when my new claim was filed. It took them 6 extra weeks to sort it out and I was BROKE. The system is RIGGED against us!!! 😡😡😡

I work as an employment counselor and see this situation frequently. Here's what's happening: When a claim is filed, the system automatically notifies all employers in the base period (which for 2025 claims includes the first four of the last five completed quarters before filing). Each employer has the right to provide information that might affect eligibility. In your fiancé's case, the previous employer responded with potentially disqualifying information. However, since your fiancé is claiming benefits based on the most recent employment (and that employer isn't contesting), there's a good chance he'll still qualify. The claim examiner needs to determine if: 1. The misconduct allegation is substantiated 2. Even if substantiated, whether enough time has passed since that separation 3. Whether subsequent employment has purged any disqualification I recommend he prepare documentation about the circumstances of leaving the previous job in case he needs to appeal. The 'priority' status typically moves claims to the front of the queue, usually resolving within 5-12 business days.

When this happened to me in January, I kept calling the NY unemployment office for 2 weeks straight but could never get through to anyone. The phone system is a complete nightmare! After doing some research, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to an agent in under 10 minutes. Worth every penny considering I was about to miss rent payment. The agent I spoke with saw the same issue - previous employer flagging my account - and manually pushed my claim through the review process. Got paid within 3 days after that call. There's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE The key is getting to an actual person who can see what's happening and flag it in the system. Otherwise, these flagged claims can sit in limbo for months.

This reminds me of what happened with my roommate last year. She got a job at a restaurant after being fired from some tech startup, then the restaurant closed down and she filed for unemployment. The tech company tried saying she was fired for being on her phone too much or something, but unemployment still approved her anyway after like 5 weeks of waiting. But then they made her verify her identity like 3 different times which was super annoying. She had to upload her driver's license and social security card like every other week because they kept saying the pictures weren't clear enough. She was so stressed about it the whole time. Anyway I think your fiance will be fine eventually but the waiting sucks.

is ur fiance sure he didnt file for unemploment against the old job? sometimes people forget they filed before or maybe someone used his info? just checking

Just to follow up on my earlier comment - I want to clarify something about the misconduct issue. Under current NY unemployment regulations (as of 2025), even if there was misconduct at a previous job, it's usually disqualified if: 1. Your fiancé worked at the most recent job for at least 5 weeks, AND 2. Earned at least 10 times his weekly benefit rate at that most recent job This is called "re-qualifying" through subsequent employment. The unemployment representative who put his claim on priority status likely saw this and recognized he should qualify despite the flag from the previous employer. The priority review should be completed soon based on standard processing times. If it goes beyond 10 business days total, I'd recommend calling again.

my brother works at the DOL and says they are SUPER backlogged right now because of some computer system update gone wrong. priority might not mean much tbh

Just one more thing to consider - make sure your fiancé continues to certify for benefits every week while waiting for the review to complete. Many people make the mistake of stopping certification during pending reviews, but he should continue doing his weekly certifications as normal. If approved, he'll receive all backdated payments for properly certified weeks.