Why would someone get denied unemployment benefits from NYS Department of Labor?
I'm trying to understand all the reasons why NYS Department of Labor might deny an unemployment claim. My cousin just got denied and she's really confused about it. She worked at a restaurant for 8 months before getting laid off last month, but her claim got rejected. What are the main reasons people get denied? I want to make sure I understand this in case it ever happens to me or I can help her figure out what went wrong.
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Maxwell St. Laurent
There are several common reasons for NYS Department of Labor denials. Most frequent ones are: insufficient work history (you need to have earned enough wages in your base period), being fired for misconduct, quitting without good cause, not being able and available to work, or failing to meet job search requirements. For restaurant workers, sometimes there are issues with tip reporting that affect wage calculations. Your cousin should check her determination letter - it will explain exactly why she was denied.
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Talia Klein
•She said something about not having enough quarters or something like that? Is that the work history thing you mentioned?
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PaulineW
Yeah the quarters thing is probably about her base period earnings. NYS Department of Labor looks at your earnings from 5 quarters ago through 2 quarters ago to determine if you qualify. If she only worked 8 months at one job, she might not have enough earnings in that specific time period. She can appeal the decision if she thinks they calculated wrong or if she has other work history they didn't count.
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Annabel Kimball
•this is so confusing why cant they just look at your recent work like normal people would do
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Maxwell St. Laurent
•The base period system is designed to ensure people have a substantial work history before collecting benefits. It prevents people from working just a few weeks and then claiming unemployment.
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Chris Elmeda
I got denied twice before I finally understood the system. First time was because I quit my job to take care of my sick mom - apparently that's not considered 'good cause' unless you exhaust FMLA first. Second time I got fired for being late too many times and they said it was misconduct. The whole thing is really strict about why you became unemployed.
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Talia Klein
•That's so harsh about taking care of your mom! Did you ever get approved eventually?
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Chris Elmeda
•Yeah I finally got approved when I got laid off from my next job due to budget cuts. But it took forever to get through.
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Jean Claude
If your cousin is having trouble reaching NYS Department of Labor to understand her denial, I used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really helped me understand why my claim was initially flagged and what I needed to do to fix it. Sometimes you just need to talk to a real person to sort these things out.
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Charity Cohan
•never heard of that but honestly anything is better than trying to call the regular number and getting hung up on
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Josef Tearle
The system is SO unfair. They deny people for the stupidest reasons and then make you jump through hoops to appeal. I know someone who got denied because they marked that they were 'available for part-time work only' thinking it would help them get something faster, but apparently that disqualifies you completely. You have to be available for full-time work even if you don't want it.
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Talia Klein
•Wait really? You can't say you only want part-time? That seems backwards.
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Maxwell St. Laurent
•That's correct - you must be able and available for full-time work to qualify for unemployment benefits. The logic is that if you're limiting your availability, you're not truly unemployed through no fault of your own.
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