NY unemployment shows effective days jumped from 0 to 100 overnight - is my claim at risk?

that happened to me last month, freaked me out too. turns out its just how the ny system tracks benefits used. higher number = more benefits used up. u should call them

This is a common misunderstanding with NY unemployment. The "effective days" counter actually increases as you use your benefits. Each week you claim adds 4 effective days to your total (each effective day represents 1/4 of your weekly benefit). When you reach 104 effective days, you've used all your regular UI benefits for your benefit year. So if you went from 0 to 100 suddenly, the system likely just updated to reflect all your previous claims at once. It doesn't mean you've lost anything - just that the counter is now accurate.

NYSDOL's system is DELIBERATELY CONFUSING!! They make everything complicated so people give up claiming what they're entitled to. I've been dealing with them since 2025 began and NOTHING is ever simple or works right. They probably hope you panic and stop filing!!

My brother-in-law works for a state agency (not NY) and he says all these unemployment systems were built like 20 years ago and they keep patching them but nobody knows how they actually work anymore lol. So weird things happen all the time with the counters and stuff.

I'm an unemployment counselor in NY. The other commenters are correct about effective days increasing as you claim benefits. Each week adds 4 days, so 100 days means you've claimed about 25 weeks. What likely happened is the system had a glitch where it wasn't showing your accumulated days correctly, then suddenly updated all at once. You should still have about 4 weeks of benefits remaining before hitting the 104-day maximum for regular UI. I recommend taking screenshots of your payment history just to be safe, and if your benefits unexpectedly stop before you reach 104 days, you'll need to contact NYSDOL directly.

Oh gosh this is making me nervous. I'm at 88 effective days and had no idea what that meant until reading this thread! I thought I still had months of benefits left!! Now I'm panicking because I need to find a job ASAP!!

I had this happen once but mine went from like 60 to 20 overnight which was good I guess? The website is so confusing I just check that my payments keep coming and ignore the rest lol

I've had similar issues with my NY unemployment account and tried calling for weeks without getting through. I finally used a service called Claimyr that got me connected to an actual NYSDOL agent in about 30 minutes. They explained exactly what was happening with my effective days and fixed an issue with my account. Totally worth it after spending days trying to call myself. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE and their website is claimyr.com if anyone else is stuck trying to get answers.

Just checked my account and I'm at 92 effective days... had no idea what that meant til now. Thanks everyone for explaining!

One more thing to clarify: If you've been claiming for 2 months and suddenly have 100 effective days, there might be an error in the system. At 4 days per week, you should only have accumulated about 32-36 effective days after 2 months. I'd recommend contacting NYSDOL to verify this isn't a mistake that could affect your benefit year calculation.

Anyone else notice how the NYSDOL system always has these "glitches" that somehow reduce your benefits or make things more complicated?? NEVER seems to glitch in our favor!! Just saying...

UPDATE: I finally got through to someone at NYSDOL! You all were right about effective days increasing as benefits are used, but there WAS actually an error in my case. Somehow the system had duplicated several of my weekly certifications, counting them twice. The representative fixed it and my effective days are now showing correctly at 44. Thank you all for your help - I never would have known to check without this forum!