unemployment benefits

Press release:

The New York State Department of Labor today announced that it had distributed more than $4.6 billion in unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began impacting businesses in early March.

In total, the DOL has processed more than 1.6 million completed applications or unemployment benefits since March 9th, including for both traditional unemployment insurance and the new COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

“In New York, we are working faster and more aggressively to deliver unemployment benefits than many other states, and in a matter of weeks, we have paid more than $4.6 billion to well over a million New Yorkers,” NYS Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said.“We have been throwing everything — including the kitchen sink — at upgrading our systems and increasing our capacity to serve New Yorkers, and we will continue this work until everyone receives their benefits.”

Since coronavirus-related shutdowns began impacting businesses across the country in March, states have faced an unprecedented number of new unemployment insurance applications. To date, more than 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits through the week ending April 25th.

The volume of new unemployment claims has reached historic levels, including setting a record for the highest number of weekly claims filed nationwide for the week ending March 28th, which saw 6.8 million new claims -- compared to the previous high before this crisis of 695,000 claims during one week in October 1982.

Completed unemployment benefit applications for 1.6 million New Yorkers have been processed since this crisis began -- including 222,040 new claims from the week ending April 25.

In total, New York State has distributed over $4.6 billion in benefits to New Yorkers between March 9 and April 30, including through traditional unemployment insurance and new federal programs like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for those not covered by traditional unemployment insurance; Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides an additional $600 per week for all benefit recipients; and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provides 13 additional weeks of benefits, for a total of 39 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Facing an unprecedented surge in unemployment claims and a large number of partially complete claims with missing or incomplete Federal Employer Identification Numbers, which require a phone call to complete, the Department of Labor has taken decisive action to update its system, streamline operations, and improve its capacity to serve New Yorkers. These efforts include:

• Issuing a directive requiring New York-based employers to provide New Yorkers with the information they need to apply for unemployment benefits, including the company’s Federal Employer Identification Number;
   
• Launching a new, streamlined website backed by Google Cloud's infrastructure, which can automatically scale to meet demand and rolling out an updated application that allows New Yorkers to seamlessly apply for either traditional unemployment insurance or the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in one system — well before many other states launched their PUA applications;
   
• Undertaking a major call back initiative to proactively call New Yorkers with partially completed applications and obtain the information needed to process their claims. To date, the DOL has made more than 670,000 proactive calls;
   
• Increasing the number of Department of Labor representatives handling calls and processing applications from 400 people working five days a week to up to 3,100 individuals working seven days a week; and
   
• Being among the first states to release the additional $600 weekly payments to unemployed individuals -- even before the federal government made funding available.

The New York State Department of Labor today announced that it has distributed $3.1 billion in unemployment benefits to New Yorkers since the coronavirus pandemic started impacting New York businesses in early March.

In total, more than 1.4 million New Yorkers have submitted completed applications for unemployment benefits since the crisis began, including traditional unemployment insurance and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

“Every state is facing major challenges when it comes to unemployment, but in New York we are upgrading our systems in real time while delivering benefits to New Yorkers faster and more aggressively than any other state,” said NYS Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon.

“I’ve been unemployed myself — I know that losing your job is one of the most trying situations someone can face — and while there is more work to do, we have connected over one million New Yorkers with billions of dollars in benefits in just six weeks. We will keep working around the clock seven days a week to ensure every single New Yorker gets every single dollar they deserve."

In addition, the Department of Labor has updated and streamlined the sections of its website most frequently used by New Yorkers seeking unemployment benefits. These updated pages -- which include the DOL homepage, an explanation of how to file your claim, information on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, and more -- are now mobile friendly and easier to read and navigate, which will help unemployed New Yorkers get the information they need faster so they can file for benefits.

Since nationwide coronavirus-related business shutdowns in early March, states across the country have faced an unprecedented increase in the number of people filing for unemployment insurance — with an extraordinary 26 million Americans now having submitted claims. Since March 9, New York State has processed 1.4 million initial applications for unemployment benefits, including 207,172 during the week ending April 18 and 399,015 the week before.

Between March 9 and April 22, New York State has distributed $3.1 billion to support New Yorkers who lost their jobs. This level of relief far outstrips what has been provided by other large states during this crisis.

The total includes traditional unemployment insurance and new federal programs like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for those not covered by traditional unemployment insurance; Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides an additional $600 per week for all benefit recipients; and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provides 13 additional weeks of benefits, for a total of 39 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Facing an unprecedented surge in unemployment claims, the Department of Labor has taken decisive action to update its system, streamline operations, and improve its capacity to serve New Yorkers. These efforts include:

• Launching a new, streamlined website backed by Google Cloud’s infrastructure, which can automatically scale to meet demand;
   
• Undertaking a major call back initiative to proactively call New Yorkers with partially-completed applications and obtain the information needed to process their claims. To date, the DOL has made more than 625,000 proactive calls;
   
• Increasing the number of Department of Labor representatives handling calls and processing applications from 400 people working five days a week to up to 3,100 individuals working seven days a week;
   
• Rolling out a streamlined online application, which allows New Yorkers to seamlessly apply for either traditional unemployment insurance or the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in one system; and
   
• Being among the first states to release the additional $600 weekly payments to unemployed individuals — even before the federal government made funding available.

Press release:

The New York State Department of Labor today announced the launch of a new application for New Yorkers to apply for traditional Unemployment Insurance or the new COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. This one-stop-shop for unemployment benefits will connect New Yorkers with the benefits they deserve faster, without requiring them to call the Department of Labor.

Prior to today, due to cumbersome federal guidelines, New Yorkers were required to apply for regular Unemployment Insurance and be rejected before applying for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. With this new application, which aligns with updated federal policy, New Yorkers will be able to simply fill out one form to get the correct benefits.

In conjunction with this morning’s rollout of the improved application, DOL has been deploying over 3,100 representatives solely dedicated to answering unemployment benefit needs seven days a week. This is up from 400 who previously manned the DOL call center prior to the pandemic.

Since the COVID-19 crisis began, DOL has paid approximately $2.2 billion in Unemployment Insurance benefits to 1.1 million New Yorkers. The application call backlog prior to April 8 has been reduced to 4,305 from 275,000.

“I have been unemployed before myself, and I understand the pain, fear and anxiety New Yorkers are facing. The DOL’s mission is to help our neighbors through some of their toughest days, and in the last week we have made great strides in updating our systems,” NYS Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said.

“While it appears the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to stabilize — at least from the public health perspective — we know that many New Yorkers are still facing an uncertain economic future, and the Department of Labor will continue to dedicate every resource available to helping New Yorkers weather this storm.”

The updated unemployment benefits application system, available here, will determine which unemployment program — unemployment insurance or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance — New Yorkers should apply for and then prompt them to answer a specific set of questions. The application builds on the new online system the department rolled out on Friday, April 10th, in partnership with the State Office of Information Technology Services and Google Cloud, to help manage the exponential and unprecedented increase in new claims resulting from the ‎COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which was included in the Federal CARES Act, provides unemployment benefits for individuals who are ineligible for traditional unemployment insurance. Examples of those covered by PUA include:

• Self-employed New Yorkers;
• Independent contractors;
• New Yorkers who worked for an app-based company (i.e. “gig workers”)
• Farmers;
• Those diagnosed with COVID-19 or who have COVID-19 symptoms and are seeking a diagnosis;
• Those living with a household member who has been diagnosed with COVID-19;
• Those providing care for a family or household member diagnosed with COVID-19;
• A primary caregiver for a child unable to attend school or another facility due to COVID-19;
• Those unable to reach their place of employment due to an imposed quarantine or because they have been advised by a medical provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19;
• Those scheduled to commence new employment that cannot reach their workplace as a direct result of COVID-19;
• Those who became a major breadwinner because the head of their household died from COVID-19;
• Those who quit their job as a direct result of COVID-19;
• Those whose place of employment closed as a direct result of COVID-19;
• Those with insufficient work history and affected by COVID-19; and
• New Yorkers otherwise not qualified for regular or extended UI benefits and affected by COVID-19

In addition, New Yorkers concerned about food insecurity are reminded that resources are available across the state. Anyone looking for assistance can find a local food bank, including those supported by New York State, by visiting Feeding America's website here.

The New York State Department of Labor is dedicated to ensuring that every New Yorker who is entitled to unemployment insurance benefits will receive all benefits due. New Yorkers seeking to file an unemployment insurance claim should visit labor.ny.gov or call the Telephone Claim Center at (888) 209-8124. Below are some resources that will assist New Yorkers in filing their claims:

Fact sheet on Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

 Update: 4:30 p.m.

From Deanna Cohen: Today by noon, we had 206,080 logins to our website and 159,000 calls.

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The New York State Department of Labor’s staff is being stretched to the limit – and beyond – as thousands of displaced and laid off workers are filing for unemployment benefits.

“Currently, our New York State Department of Labor website is averaging 250,000 logins per day -- a 400 percent increase over the normal average – and we’re seeing over a 1000 percent increase in claims in some areas across the state,” Deanna Cohen, NYS Department of Labor deputy director of communications, told The Batavian this afternoon.

Cohen said the agency is taking major steps to address what she called “this unprecedented increase.”

“We have added server capacity, bandwidth, and dedicated more than 700 staff members to address the influx,” she said, noting that on Tuesday the department received 75,000 calls – about 65,000 more than the number of calls received on an average day. “We are also hiring an additional 65 plus more individuals to address the surge and will be hiring more as we are able.”

She made it a point to say that all New Yorkers will get the benefits they are entitled to; even if they file next week, they will receive their FULL benefit back to the date of unemployment.

Cohen said readers should be aware of the federal government’s enactment of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which includes extended unemployment benefits.

“New Yorkers do not need to do anything new -- if the state qualifies for extended benefits, those benefits will be provided automatically,” she reported. “So if individuals are calling with questions about extended unemployment insurance benefits, they should hang up and go to our website at www.labor.ny.gov for more information. This will help keep these phone lines available for their fellow New Yorkers who need to file new claims.”