NYS Department of Labor says I'm disqualified - what does disqualified mean on unemployment?
I just checked my claim status online and it says 'disqualified' but I have no idea what this means. I filed my weekly claim Sunday like always and now this shows up. Does anyone know what does disqualified mean on unemployment? I'm freaking out because I need these benefits to pay rent. The NYS Department of Labor website doesn't really explain it clearly and I can't get through on the phone.
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Clarissa Flair
Being disqualified means NYS Department of Labor has determined you're temporarily or permanently ineligible for benefits. Common reasons include: not actively seeking work, refusing suitable employment, being fired for misconduct, or not meeting weekly certification requirements. Check your correspondence section on my.ny.gov for a determination letter explaining the specific reason.
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Eve Freeman
•I don't see any letters in my correspondence section. How long does it usually take for them to send the explanation?
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Caden Turner
happened to me last year, turned out I missed uploading my job search log for two weeks in a row and they disqualified me automatically
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Eve Freeman
•Oh no, I might have missed uploading mine too. Were you able to get it reversed?
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Caden Turner
•yeah but took like 3 weeks of calling and explaining what happened. they eventually reinstated everything
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McKenzie Shade
You can appeal any disqualification decision within 30 days. The most important thing is to keep filing your weekly claims even while disqualified - this preserves your right to back payments if you win the appeal. Don't stop certifying just because you're disqualified.
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Harmony Love
•This is really important advice! I made the mistake of stopping my weekly claims when I got disqualified and lost out on 6 weeks of back pay even after winning my appeal.
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Rudy Cenizo
The NYS Department of Labor phone system is absolutely useless for getting real answers about disqualifications. I spent weeks trying to reach someone who could actually explain my situation. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that connects you directly to agents - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Got through to someone in 20 minutes who explained my disqualification was just a computer error.
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Eve Freeman
•How much does that cost? I'm already broke from not getting benefits.
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Rudy Cenizo
•It's worth checking out their site for details. For me it was way cheaper than missing more weeks of benefits while trying to figure things out myself.
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Natalie Khan
THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS BROKEN! They disqualify people for the stupidest reasons then make it impossible to fix. I've been disqualified THREE TIMES for things that weren't even my fault. Each time takes months to sort out while you're left with nothing.
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Daryl Bright
•same here, it's like they want people to give up and stop trying
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Taylor Chen
I'm going through the exact same thing right now! Got disqualified out of nowhere and can't figure out why. The stress is killing me because I have bills due next week. One thing that helped me was creating an account on the NY.gov website and checking EVERY section - sometimes the determination letters show up in weird places. Also try calling the technical support line (not the claims line) - they can sometimes see system notes that explain the disqualification even if you haven't gotten the official letter yet. Hang in there, most of these end up being fixable once you understand what triggered it.
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