Morgan McKay is reporting for State of Politics more than Over $9.2 billion in unemployment benefits have been issued to approximately 2 million New Yorkers. The state says it has cleared most of the backlog of pending claims, but Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims are taking longer to process, Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said. “These are difficult claims to process because of the nature of the income and we are working our way through it as quickly as we can,” said Reardon. However, Melissa DeRosa, Governor Cuomo's top aide, said during two different press briefings the main three reasons people are still awaiting benefits are because they have missing information, are forgetting their weekly certification, or their claim has been marked as possibly fraudulent. “People outstanding are the exception not the rule, and DOL is working around the clock to address those issues,” DeRosa said. According to the state Labor Department, there are still 23,000 applications filed between March 2 and April 22 that the state has not been able to process yet due to missing information, duplicate applications, or the claim was abandoned. There are also 16,000 claims during this time frame that are waiting to be finished processing or need more information. According to Reardon, these applicants have been contacted. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.