Still waiting for NY unemployment payments after 2 months - benefit rate determination delay?

Welcome to NY unemployment hell. I waited 11 weeks before getting my first payment. The only thing that worked was calling every single morning at 7:59am exactly when they open. Got through on my 4th day doing this. Good luck!

After weeks of trying to call and getting nowhere, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that held my place in line and actually got me through to a live agent! Talking to a real human fixed my issue in 10 minutes. It was the only way I could actually get my benefits moving. Check out their explainer video here: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE

Call your state representative ASAP! This worked for me when I was stuck for 6 weeks. I emailed my assembly person with my claim info and they had someone from ny unemployment call me within 48 hours. They can expedite your claim.

EXACT same thing happened to me!! Got the determination letter but website still showed "pending benefit rate determination" for 3 more months! Turned out they had an old employer listed that I hadn't worked for in 2 years and it was messing up their system. Make sure all your employment history is 100% accurate.

Have you checked if there are any outstanding documents they need from you? Sometimes they don't tell you but expect additional proof of income or identity. Log into your account and check the documents section.

Look in the Docusign section of ur account! This happened to me and there was a form they needed me to sign that was never emailed to me. It was just sitting there for weeks and nobody told me 🤦‍♂️

Here's a comprehensive approach to solving this issue (worked for me after being stuck for 9 weeks): 1) Document EVERYTHING - dates you called, messages sent, letters received 2) Submit a formal complaint through the NY DOL website - there's a specific form for delayed payments 3) Call exactly at 8:00am AND again at 3:30pm - these are shift change times and your odds are better 4) Contact BOTH your state assembly person AND state senator - submit help requests through both 5) If still stuck after all that, use a service like claimyr.com - it's what finally got me through to an actual human Once I got someone on the phone, they found that my claim had been flagged for a "wage verification" that was never sent to me. The agent manually released all my back payments on the spot. The system is deliberately complicated, but persistence is key. Don't give up!

The real problem is their computer system is ancient and can't handle basic functions. My claim was stuck for 63 days because my last name has an apostrophe in it and their system kept glitching out. Had to get a supervisor to manually override it 🤬

Check if youve been certifying every week! Even if you havent received any payments, you need to certify each week or theyll assume you dont need money that week. A lot of ppl miss this step.

sounds like they put your claim in the "pending purgatory" pile. i was there for 11 weeks. you NEED to talk to a tier 2 agent, not just the first person who answers. when you get through, immediately ask to speak with a claims specialist or supervisor.

Did you happen to work in another state in the last 18 months? If so, that can cause major delays because they have to verify with other state systems. Took them 14 weeks to process mine because I had worked in NJ for 3 months.

Just posting to say I'M IN THE EXACT SAME SITUATION RIGHT NOW. Applied Feb 2, got determination letter Feb 14, still nothing! Let us know if you figure out what works!!

NY unemployment system is a complete disaster. They're still using COBOL programming from the 1970s. My brother works in their IT department and says there are claims that get stuck in "logic loops" for no reason. Only a manual override by staff fixes it.

have you tried Twitter? deadass tweet at @NYSLabor with your issue (don't include personal info). they sometimes respond faster there because its public and makes them look bad. worked for me!

sometimes the delay is because they're doing an employer verification and your former employer isn't responding. if you have any contacts at your old job, ask them to check if they got any requests from unemployment. my old HR lady found unemployment emails in their spam folder!