NY unemployment verification issues - no payment despite claiming weekly benefits

Unfortunately this is super common with NY unemployment in 2025. The system verification can get stuck in a weird limbo state where it says you're approved but your payments are still pending additional review. This usually happens when there's some discrepancy in your work history or the system flagged something for manual review. After verification and weekly certification, you should typically see payments within 2-3 business days max. Since it's been 3 weeks, something is definitely wrong.

i had this happen in january. turns out my previous employer disputed my claim saying i quit (i didnt, they reduced my hours so much i couldnt pay rent). took me FOREVER to get someone on the phone to fix it

The NY unemployment phone system is absolutely broken by design. I was in your exact situation last month - verified everything correctly but payments stuck in pending. I wasted about 40 hours trying to call before I discovered Claimyr (claimyr.com). It's this service that actually calls NYSDOL for you and connects you with an agent when they answer. Totally saved my sanity and got my issue resolved in one day after waiting for weeks. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE

I'm starting to panic a bit. Rent is due next week and I was counting on at least getting one payment by now. Has anyone had their payments suddenly go through after being stuck like this? Or is calling really the ONLY way to fix it? I've tried sending messages through the online portal but no response there either.

sometimes they just randomly start working again lol. I had payments stop for 2 wks then suddenly got EVERYTHING at once. no explanation

THEY DO THIS ON PURPOSE!!! The whole system is designed to be impossible to navigate so people give up claiming what they're legally entitled to. I've been through this 3 times since 2025 started. Each time it was something different - once they claimed they "couldn't verify my identity" even though I uploaded every document they asked for. Another time they said I hadn't responded to some questionnaire THAT THEY NEVER SENT ME. The ONLY way to fix it is to actually talk to someone. But they make that nearly IMPOSSIBLE because they're UNDERSTAFFED and the phone system is from 1995!!!!!

make sure ur answering the certification questions right. my brother kept answering yes to "were you ready and available to work" when he was actually in school part time and that flagged his account for weeks

Have you checked if there are any notices in your online account? Sometimes they send important verification requests through the portal rather than email or mail. Also, what does your payment history page show? Does it show $0 payments or no entries at all?

That "pending" with $0 means your certification was received but payment is held for additional verification. Based on the timeline, I strongly suspect one of three issues: 1. Your identity verification needs additional manual review 2. Your previous employer provided information that conflicts with your claim 3. There's a technical issue with your banking information Unfortunately, all three require speaking with an agent. The fact that you've been trying for three weeks without any update means something is stuck in the system.

Glad to hear you got it resolved! For anyone else reading this thread with similar issues: always continue certifying weekly even if payments aren't coming through. Once the issue is resolved, you'll receive all back payments for properly certified weeks. Also, remember to check both your email spam folder AND your online message inbox regularly, as important notices can appear in either place.

so wat was the trick that finally worked? the claimyr thing?

Just wanted to add my experience for anyone else dealing with this - I had the exact same issue last month where my payments were stuck in "pending" for 4 weeks. Turned out there was a discrepancy between what my employer reported for my last day of work versus what I put on my application (they had me down as working one day longer than I actually did). The frustrating part is the system doesn't tell you WHY it's pending or what specific information needs to be verified. Once I got through to someone and they corrected the dates, all my back payments came through within 48 hours. The key really is just getting a human on the phone who can actually see what's flagged in your file. Keep trying different times of day - I had luck calling right at 8am on Tuesday mornings.