When do I request my waiting week on NYS Department of Labor unemployment claim?
I've been filing my weekly claims for about 6 weeks now and just realized I never formally requested my waiting week credit. My claim got approved back in October but I'm confused about when exactly I'm supposed to ask for that first week back. Do I need to call NYS Department of Labor or is there something in my online account I should be looking for? I don't want to mess up my benefits by waiting too long to request it.
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Haley Bennett
You don't actually 'request' your waiting week - it gets automatically credited once you've received benefits for your first full week. The waiting week is just the first week you file that doesn't get paid initially. After you receive your first benefit payment, that waiting week should show up as credited in your payment history on the my.ny.gov portal.
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Rami Samuels
•Oh that makes sense! I was worried I had missed some deadline. So I should see it in my payment history already if I've been getting benefits for 6 weeks?
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Douglas Foster
yeah mine showed up automatically after like 2 weeks of getting paid, didn't have to do anything special for it
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Nina Chan
Check your online account under 'Payment History' - if you've been collecting for 6 weeks, that waiting week credit should definitely be there by now. If it's not showing up, that's when you'd want to contact NYS Department of Labor. Sometimes there are processing delays but 6 weeks is long enough that it should be resolved. You can also try calling their customer service line, though getting through can be a real pain with how busy they are.
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Rami Samuels
•I'll check my payment history tonight when I get home. Hopefully it's just there and I missed seeing it somehow.
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Ruby Knight
I had issues getting through to NYS Department of Labor when my waiting week didn't show up after 3 weeks. Kept getting disconnected or stuck on hold for hours. Finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get connected to an actual agent - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. The agent was able to look up my account and fix the waiting week credit issue in like 10 minutes. Way better than trying to call on my own.
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Diego Castillo
•Never heard of that service before but the phone system is definitely frustrating. Did they charge you for it or is it free to use?
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Ruby Knight
•There's a cost but honestly it was worth it to actually talk to someone who could help instead of wasting days trying to get through the regular way.
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Logan Stewart
wait I thought you had to file for the waiting week during your first claim??? I never did that and now I'm worried I missed out on money
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Haley Bennett
•No, you don't file separately for it. When you file your very first weekly claim, that automatically becomes your waiting week. You just won't get paid for that specific week until later.
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Luca Romano
Just wanted to add that if you're still not seeing your waiting week credit after checking your payment history, you might want to look at your claim summary too. Sometimes it shows up there under "benefit weeks paid" or something similar. I had the same confusion when I first started filing - the system isn't super clear about how the waiting week works. But like everyone else said, it should definitely be there automatically after you've received a few payments. The good news is there's no deadline to worry about - it's not something you can "miss" requesting.
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NebulaNomad
•That's really helpful about checking the claim summary too! I was getting stressed thinking I had to do something special to get that money back. It's reassuring to know there's no deadline and it should just appear automatically. The NYS system definitely could be clearer about explaining how this all works.
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