Reader Question: I applied a few weeks ago. Why is my claim still “pending”? What can I do?
Call the NY Department Of Labor (888-209-8124) and ask them to manually check your application with you and ask you any information that they need to complete your application.
One small problem – it can be challenging to get through to a live person on the phone!
Call Early! Try calling at exactly 8:00am, when they open. You might not get through right away. You may have to try calling a bunch of times even if you call first thing in the morning. However, you have much higher chances of getting through to someone early in the morning.
Should I worry?
No. When your claim is eventually finalized, if you are approved, you should get back pay from the last day you were employed.
How do you know if your application is in pending status?
Well, for starters, if you aren’t get any payments, that’s a sign that your application may still be in pending status. Log onto your account and go to “unemployment services” and see what it says. If there is an error message, chances are your claim is ‘pending’.
Further Details
As I wrote, the outcome of your unemployment application will generally be one of the following four options:
- Approved for regular unemployment (plus $600) – generally for “W2” workers.
- Approved for PUA at $182 a week (plus $600)
- Declined for both regular and PUA
- A request for further information.
So why is my claim stuck in ‘pending’ and not one of the above four outcomes?
My theory is that when you apply, based on every answer you give on the application form, the back-end of the application form sorts your application into one of four “piles”: 1) Eligible for regular UI 2) Eligible for PUA 3) Not eligible for either 4) More information needed.
Those who the “system” identifies, based on all the answers you provided, as definitely eligible for either regular unemployment or definitely not eligible for regular unemployment but definitely yes eligible for PUA, get approved rather quickly. “Rather quickly” is relative, as it can still be up two weeks even for these application to be fully approved.
Those who are somewhat eligible for regular unemployment and also somewhat eligible for PUA or those who based on some answers should not be eligible, but are eligible based on other answers, are manually reviewed and the results are numbers 1-4 above. As the unemployment agency is very backed up, this process can take a long time.
Twitter
The DOL tweeted today that they will updating people’s status so you can easier see where things are holding. Also, the DOL seems to be responding to some individual people on Twitter, so you can always try to tweet or direct message them and see if you get any help that way.
Good luck!
Were you successful? Any questions? Send us a message or leave a comment below. Also, here is a large Facebook group where many people in NY are writing about their experiences.
<Post last updated on June 16, 2020>