Tuesday, September 08, 2020

NYS Unemployment During a Pandemic

 Following up on my previous post about filing a new claim for unemployment after my benefits year expired during this pandemic...
I filed a new claim, everything seemed copacetic. But then I claimed benefits for the next two weeks and nothing came through because technically my new claim was still "pending" as they were figuring out how much I'd be getting on a weekly basis.
This past Friday, I was on hold on the unemployment phone line for over 4 hours and did NOT get through to someone. (I requested a callback but never received one.)
This morning, I checked my unemployment claim online and my claim was no longer pending, there was a weekly dollar amount determined (which was the same as it was before). And just now, I got a callback from someone at NYS Unemployment (Which showed up on my Caller ID), and the guy basically confirmed everything was good. He basically cleared out my old claim, activated my new claim and released payment for the two weeks I hadn't gotten paid for.
The job I was waiting to return to has been canceled, but I've got a few weeks of work of wrap and was looking forward to a smooth transition back to unemployment. So, all's good now. Lots of people have far worse unemployment stories than mine. Knock on wood, it's one aspect of this nightmare year that's not been a complete disaster, for me.