Each week you need to certify in order to get the payment for the previous week. There are two ways to certify each week.

1. Online: Labor.ny.gov/signin
2. Phone:
   – UI (Regular Unemployment): 1-888-581-5812
   – PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance): 1-833-324-0366

Note: If you want to certify for weeks further back than the most recent week, see our guide.

If you have permanently returned to work full-time, note that by the “returned to work” section. If you are still planning on claiming Unemployment in future weeks, answer “No”,

Each week that you get unemployment assistance, you need to fill out a form confirming that you are still eligible to receive unemployment payments: You didn’t refuse work, didn’t earn more than $504 and didn’t work more than 3 days in the week.

When should I certify? Each and every week you need certify that you were eligible for unemployment for the previous week. You should certify your weeks each Sunday, starting from the Sunday after you apply. Do this even before you get a confirmation letter or start getting weekly payments.

Do I have to certify on Sunday? No. The form needs to be filled Sunday-Saturday for the previous week. I suggest that you fill it out on Sunday so that your payment is not delayed. Funds are generally released the business day after you certify. Also, it gives you time to remember later in the week if you forget on Sunday.

What happens after I certify? Each week that you complete the certification form, your weekly payment will be deposited in your bank account, or loaded onto your debit card.

The online and phone certifying system only allows you to certify for the previous week. In other words, you cannot certify using the automated system for two weeks ago or further. So…

What if I applied with a retroactive claim – How do I certify the back weeks?
Read more HERE on certifying back weeks.

Help! I forgot to certify last week! What can I do now? Step one is when you certify for the following week it will ask you regarding your “break-in claim”. Make sure to answer “No” to that question so that the DOL will know that you still want to claim for the week that you missed. Then, call the DOL and ask them to certify your missing week. Also, you might receive an email from dse@docusign.net with the option to certify the missing week via Docusign.

Each week that you want to claim unemployment, which basically means any week that you want to get paid from unemployment, you first need to tell the DOL if you worked that week, and if yes, how much you worked. This is done via a weekly certification form, as per the screenshots above.

Unemployment payments each week are treated separately, so every week that you didn’t work you get your full unemployment amount. Whereas every week that you worked you lose some of your unemployment payments.

How much do you lose for each week that you worked?

There was a change from considering the number of days worked each week to looking at the number of hours worked each weeks. The change happened on 01/18/2021. So for any weeks up until 01/18, the number of days worked counts, and for any weeks from 01/18 it’s the number of hours worked that counts.

Before 01/18/2021

You are eligible each week for unemployment payments as long as you are working less than 4 days per week and earning less than $504 a week (The $504 a week maximum seems to be only for a W2 employee, not for a self-employed person).

• If you worked in any given week, then state unemployment is reduced by ¼ per day you work, so here’s how it works:
• If you worked one day in a week, you lose 25% of your state benefit (still get the full $600).
• If you worked 2 days, you lose 50% of your state benefit (still get the full $600).
• If you worked 3 days, you lose 75% of your state benefit (still get the full $600).
• If you worked 4 days (or more), you lose 100% of your state benefit, and most likely you also lose your $600 as well.
  The above four scenarios is per week that you collect unemployment. If you are not eligible for one week, you can still be eligible the following weeks.

After 01/18/2021

From 01/01/2021 the DOL looks at hours worked instead of days. See ‘NY: Partial Unemployment Now Based on Hours Worked, Not Days‘ for more details.

Refusing work:

For standard unemployment, one of the things you need to certify each week is that you didn’t refuse any work. For pandemic unemployment you need to certify that you didn’t refuse any work other than for Covid-related reasons. So, if you applied because you were let go from your job (and therefore eligible for regular unemployment insurance) and your boss offered you back your job (either at work or telework), and you refuse the job offer, then when you certify for that week, indicate that you refused a job offer and the DOL will send you a letter asking you to clarify why you didn’t accept the job. If the reason why you didn’t accept the job offer, depending on the answer you give you should either be deemed ineligible for further unemployment payments or moved to pandemic unemployment.