New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon says New Yorkers who are still waiting for their unemployment benefits during this pandemic may have forgotten to file their weekly certification of unemployment.
Reardon says they're reaching out by email to thousands of New Yorkers who are first-time filers and apparently didn't know about the federal requirement for weekly certification. She says they've identified 470,000 people who were otherwise approved for unemployment benefits, but haven't gotten them because of failure to make the federally-required weekly certification. She says that left millions of dollars on the table instead of in their pockets.
Reardon wouldn't comment on the size of New York's remaining backlog for processing claims. But she says New York has paid out $5.8 billion as of today (Wed) -- processing three times as many claims in two months as they had for all of last year.
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