New York's Unemployment System Goes Dark at 5 P.M. Today — for 9 to 12 Days
The state Department of Labor is taking its 50-year-old unemployment insurance system offline Monday evening for an upgrade: no new claims, no weekly certifications and a payments delay until the new system opens — with a 5 p.m. deadline to file or certify first.
If you need to file an unemployment claim or certify for this week's benefits, the clock on the wall says 5 p.m. At that hour Monday, the New York State Department of Labor takes its entire unemployment insurance system offline — online and by phone — for an upgrade expected to last 9 to 12 days, into mid-November.
During the shutdown, the department says, New Yorkers will not be able to file new unemployment insurance claims, certify for weekly benefits, or access or update account information; the call center is offline too. 'Customers will not be able to file unemployment insurance claims, certify for weekly benefits, or access or update account information during this upgrade period,' Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said. Payments will be delayed — but the department says customers will receive every benefit payment they are entitled to once the upgrade is complete and they file or certify in the new system, and anyone who misses Monday's deadline can backdate a claim.
Two duties survive the outage. Claimants must keep completing and recording their required work-search activities while the system is down — the department will ask for the records later — and current customers should keep their existing username and password: they will log in to the upgraded system, called Unemployment Services, with the same credentials and should not create a new account. Career Centers will operate by virtual appointment from November 3 to November 27 for job-search help, though they cannot assist with unemployment insurance itself. Business tax filing is untouched: the upgrade does not affect electronic filing of Forms NYS-1 and NYS-45.
The reason for the surgery is the patient: the current system is more than 50 years old and, in the department's words, has struggled to meet the needs of the modern customer. 'This upgrade has been years in the making,' Reardon said in the department's release. For the New Yorkers who certify every week — most of them on Sundays — the practical advice is narrow and urgent: certify before 5 p.m. today if you can, keep your work-search records either way, and expect the money later than usual, in full, when the new system opens.
