NYS Department of Labor cut my unemployment benefits - why did my benefits decrease?
I've been collecting unemployment for about 6 weeks now and everything was going fine. My weekly benefit amount was $504 and I was getting the full amount every week. But when I checked my account yesterday, my payment dropped to $378! There's no explanation in my.ny.gov account and I can't figure out what happened. I haven't started working or done anything different with my weekly claims. Has anyone else had their NYS Department of Labor benefits randomly decrease like this? I'm really stressed because I was counting on that money to pay rent.
12 comments
Join the conversation
Eleanor Foster
There are several reasons why your weekly benefit amount might decrease. The most common is if you reported earnings from part-time work - even small amounts can reduce your benefits significantly. Another possibility is if NYS Department of Labor found unreported income during their quarterly wage crossmatch. Did you work any odd jobs or freelance work recently that you might have forgotten to report?
0 coins
Nathan Kim
•I haven't worked at all since I got laid off. The only thing I can think of is I did some Uber driving back in December but that was before I even filed for unemployment. Would that affect my current benefits?
0 coins
Lucas Turner
Check your benefit payment history carefully. Sometimes NYS Department of Labor will recover overpayments by reducing future benefits. If they determined you were overpaid earlier in your claim, they'll automatically deduct from your weekly payments until the overpayment is recovered. You should have received a notice about this though.
0 coins
Nathan Kim
•I just checked and there's no overpayment notice in my messages. My payment history just shows the reduced amount with no explanation.
0 coins
Kai Rivera
ugh this happened to me too but it was because i reported some freelance income wrong and they caught it later. the system is so confusing about how to report irregular income properly
0 coins
Anna Stewart
If you can't get through to NYS Department of Labor by phone (which is nearly impossible), I'd recommend trying Claimyr. I used them when I had a similar issue with my benefit amount changing unexpectedly. They actually got me through to a real person at NYS Department of Labor who could explain what happened. Check out claimyr.com - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Way better than sitting on hold for hours.
0 coins
Nathan Kim
•Thanks! I'll check that out. I've been trying to call for three days and keep getting disconnected.
0 coins
Layla Sanders
The NYS Department of Labor system is absolutely broken when it comes to explaining benefit changes. They'll just randomly adjust your payments and expect you to figure out why. I went through something similar and it turned out they had incorrect wage information from my base period employer. Took weeks to get it straightened out and they never proactively told me what the problem was.
0 coins
Morgan Washington
•same here! they reduced mine by like $200 and when i finally got through they said it was because of some wage discrepancy from 2 years ago. makes no sense
0 coins
Kaylee Cook
Did you recently complete your first 10 weeks of benefits? Sometimes there's a recalculation that happens after the initial period, especially if there were any wage verification issues during your original claim processing.
0 coins
Dylan Cooper
I had a similar issue last year where my benefits suddenly dropped with no warning. In my case, it turned out that NYS Department of Labor had received updated wage information from a previous employer that changed my base period calculation. The really frustrating part is that they don't automatically send you a notice explaining the change - you have to specifically request a "monetary redetermination notice" to get the details. I'd suggest calling and asking specifically for that document, or if you can't get through by phone, try sending a secure message through your my.ny.gov account requesting an explanation of the benefit reduction and asking for any notices related to monetary redetermination.
0 coins
Ava Thompson
•This is really helpful Dylan! I had no idea about the monetary redetermination notice. I'm definitely going to try sending a secure message asking for that specific document. The fact that they don't automatically send explanations is so frustrating - how are we supposed to know what's happening with our own benefits?
0 coins