NYS Department of Labor unemployment payment reduced without explanation - why did my unemployment go down?

There are several reasons your NYS Department of Labor benefit could decrease. The most common is if you reported any earnings from work, even small amounts get deducted dollar-for-dollar from your weekly benefit. Another possibility is if there was an overpayment determination that they're now recovering by reducing future payments. Check your claim history on my.ny.gov for any notices about overpayments or earnings adjustments.

same thing happened to me last year, turned out they recalculated my base period wages and found an error that reduced my weekly benefit rate. never got any notice about it either, just showed up as a lower payment

If you can't get through to NYS Department of Labor by phone, you might want to try Claimyr. I used their service at claimyr.com when I was having issues reaching an agent about my claim status. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. It helped me get connected to speak with someone about my benefit calculation issues without spending hours on hold.

THE NYS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SYSTEM IS SO BROKEN! They reduce benefits without notice, never answer phones, and expect us to figure everything out ourselves. I've been dealing with issues for MONTHS and still no resolution. This is people's livelihoods they're messing with!

Check if you hit the 26-week limit or if there was a holiday that affected the payment schedule. Sometimes benefit reductions happen when you're transitioning between different phases of your claim.

Have you checked if there were any tax withholdings that started being deducted? Sometimes NYS Department of Labor will begin withholding federal or state taxes from your benefits if you initially opted out but then they automatically enrolled you, or if there was a change in your tax election. You can check your payment history details on my.ny.gov to see if there's a breakdown showing taxes being withheld. The difference between $372 and $298 is $74, which could be about 20% tax withholding. Also look for any notices in your correspondence section that might explain the change.

I had a similar issue where my NYS Department of Labor benefits suddenly dropped by about $70. It turned out they had automatically enrolled me in federal tax withholding even though I had originally opted out. Check your payment details on my.ny.gov - look for a line item showing "Federal Tax" or "State Tax" being deducted. If that's what happened, you can change your tax withholding preferences by logging into your account and updating your payment options. The $74 difference between your old and new payment amount is roughly what you'd expect from 20% tax withholding. Also check your inbox on the unemployment portal for any notices about tax election changes - sometimes they send notifications there instead of mailing them.