BUFFALO, N.Y. — If you still haven't received your unemployment benefits, you're going to want to check your email.
The New York State Department of Labor is emailing people who weren't able to certify claims. It means an additional $480 million will be paid out to New Yorkers.
"No one should miss out on their benefits because of red tape," said NYS Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon on Wednesday during a phone call with the media.
More than 470,000 New Yorkers with complete applications didn't certify their weekly claims leaving $480 million on the table. The New York State Department of Labor says it is streamlining the process next week so you can certify a previous week's claim online.
"We will directly email New Yorkers with missing certifications from previous weeks to inform them of the situation. And, we will include in that email a secure form that they can use to submit their information, which we will then verify process and pay. If you don't have an email on file, we will also try you over the phone. And, as a last resort, we will send you a letter in the mail with information on backdating your certifications so that you can get your money," Reardon said.
The New York State Department of Labor says it has processed $5.8 billion in unemployment benefits for 1.5 million New Yorkers since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In two months, that's nearly three times the total benefits from last year.
New York State received more than 197,000 new unemployment claims this week.
"I know that many people have seen pending as their status for far too long. And, I understand the anxiety that this can cause because when you don't know where you are in the process, or why you were there, you feel powerless," Reardon said.
The New York State Department of Labor released a new fact sheet to help you check the status of your claim.
Also, many of you have told us you received $600 once or twice in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits, and that's it. You're still waiting for the rest of your money. So where is it?
Some people haven't gotten paid yet at all, while others have only gotten one payment of $600.
"For those people that we identified as moving through the process right now, we gave them the 600 FPUC payments, and what they will, they will be processed, you know, as soon as we can get them through the machine, quite frankly, and I know everybody thinks that their claim looks the same as everybody else's. Believe me they are not," Reardon said.
Reardon explained why some people are getting that money.
"This is not their back payments. This is that separate federal payment of $600. And, we just talked about certifying for back pay, that is a different process. As I said, people who have back pay that's coming, they will receive this outreach. Most of them will get emails, we ask them to fill them out, and then we'll be able to process the back pay as well. But, those are separate buckets of money and separate processes," Reardon said.
2 On Your Side requested a one-on-one interview with the commissioner again on Thursday, and we were told our request has been elevated.