NY unemployment system glitch - new 'self-employed' question appeared during weekly certification

did you go on the website to try submitting instead of phone? sometimes the website works better, maybe try that next time. i did my weekly certification yesterday and didnt get asked about self employment stuff.

This is actually a new verification question NYSDOL added in the January 2025 system update. They're periodically asking claimants about their employment status to verify that your benefit eligibility hasn't changed. It's completely normal and won't affect your payment as long as your status matches what's in your original claim file. The system rotates through different verification questions each week - some weeks you might not get any extra questions, other weeks you might get asked about self-employment, work search activities, or other eligibility factors.

DONT TRUST THE SYSTEM WHEN IT ACTS WEIRD!!! Last month the system asked me a question I'd never seen before about whether I had refused work and I answered honestly YES (because the job was paying way below my previous salary). My benefits got PUT ON HOLD for THREE WEEKS while they "investigated" and I had to upload all kinds of proof that the job offer was substantially lower than my previous work!!! They're adding these trick questions to try to disqualify people!!!

I experienced something similar last week with the phone system. Kept getting disconnected at the language selection, then when I finally got through, it asked me a new question about whether I had performed any volunteer work. The whole phone system has been extremely buggy since they did that upgrade in January. After three failed attempts, I finally gave up and used Claimyr to get through to an actual agent (claimyr.com). They have this service where they connect you directly to an unemployment rep without the hours of waiting. Their video demo (https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE) shows how it works. The agent confirmed that they've been having phone system issues and processed my certification manually. Saved me so much frustration!

this happened to my roomate too lol he was on the phone for like an hour yesterday and it hung up on him THREE TIMES before he got through and then it asked him something about if he worked out of state

I'm actually a former call center worker at DOL (left last year). What you're experiencing is the new 'Enhanced Eligibility Verification System' they implemented this year. It randomly selects claimants to answer additional verification questions based on your claim type. Self-employed folks will periodically get asked to confirm their status. It's not a glitch - it's working as designed, though the implementation has been problematic. One thing to watch for: if you're asked this question 3 weeks in a row, it usually means your claim has been flagged for a more thorough review. In that case, you might want to proactively upload your latest tax documents to your account to avoid delays.

I want to clear up a few things about these new verification questions: 1. They ARE part of the new 2025 system update 2. They rotate randomly among claimants 3. As long as your answers match your original claim information, your benefits won't be affected 4. The system IS experiencing technical issues, especially with the phone certification If you're concerned about your claim status, log into your account and check if there's a message in your inbox requesting additional information. If there isn't one within 48 hours of certification, your payment should process normally. Also, I recommend using the website for certification until they fix the phone system issues. The website certification tends to be more stable and provides confirmation numbers you can screenshot as proof of completion.

anyone know when they're fixing the phone system??? been having problems for weeks now

UPDATE: Just wanted to let everyone know my payment came through as normal this morning, so the self-employment question didn't cause any delays. Thanks for all the helpful information everyone!