Why does my unemployment say hold - NYS Department of Labor claim status confusion
My unemployment claim status on my.ny.gov just changed to 'hold' this morning and I have no idea what that means. I've been filing my weekly claims on time and doing my job searches like I'm supposed to. Last week everything was fine and I got my payment as usual. Now it just says 'hold' with no explanation or anything telling me what I need to do. Has anyone else seen this status before? I'm freaking out because I need this money to pay rent next week.
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Jayden Reed
A hold status usually means NYS Department of Labor needs to review something about your claim before they can process your next payment. It could be triggered by several things - maybe you reported earnings that need verification, or there was an issue with your job search activities, or they received information from an employer. Check your inbox on the my.ny.gov portal to see if there are any messages or documents they need from you.
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Grace Johnson
•I checked my messages and there's nothing there. Should I be worried that it's something serious?
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Nora Brooks
this happened to me too couple months ago, turned out they just needed me to verify my identity again. took like 2 weeks to clear up but i got all my back pay
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Grace Johnson
•Two weeks?? I can't wait that long for my payment. How do I get them to fix it faster?
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Eli Wang
The hold status is actually pretty common and usually resolves within a few business days if it's just a routine review. NYS Department of Labor puts holds on claims when their system flags something for manual review - could be random quality assurance, wage verification, or job search compliance check. If you haven't received any specific requests for information, it's likely just a routine review. Keep filing your weekly claims as normal even with the hold status.
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Cassandra Moon
•But what if they decide something's wrong during their review? Can they take away benefits you already received?
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Eli Wang
•They can only recover overpayments if they determine you weren't eligible for benefits you already received, but that's different from a routine hold. Most holds are just verification procedures.
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Zane Hernandez
I had the worst time trying to get through to NYS Department of Labor when my claim went on hold last year. Kept calling for days and either got busy signals or got disconnected after waiting on hold for hours. Finally found this service called Claimyr at claimyr.com that actually got me connected to an agent in like 10 minutes. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Totally worth it when you need to actually talk to someone about your claim status.
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Genevieve Cavalier
•sounds too good to be true, how much does something like that cost?
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Zane Hernandez
•Way less than losing weeks of benefits because you can't get through to explain your situation. The peace of mind alone was worth it for me.
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Ethan Scott
UGH the hold status is the WORST! They put my claim on hold for THREE MONTHS last year because of some computer glitch and when I finally got through they were like 'oh sorry about that' and released everything at once. The NYS Department of Labor system is so broken, they put holds on people for no reason and then act like it's no big deal when you're struggling to pay bills.
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Grace Johnson
•Three months?! That's terrifying. Did you get all your back pay at least?
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Genevieve Cavalier
yeah this is pretty normal, just wait it out and keep filing your weekly claims
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