can i win a hearing in ny if my wife leaves me with a young child and no childcare?

by Dave
(New York)

My wife and i separated. She left me with my 20 month old baby with no child care.

I felt forced to resign and relocate so family in NJ can provide childcare. My benefits were denied. d.o.l. said I quit for personal reasons and I didn't take enough steps to save my job.

They said I should have asked for a leave of absence. I was a seasonal worker

Part of your evaluation is your absences & lateness. They won't call you back if you miss to many days, even if they gave me a leave, I only had a weeks worth of time. Then what? leave without pay? I have a baby here to feed.

When they would have laid us off in December I was going to NJ anyway.

You can't even get a leave unless it is a medical situation or pregnancy.


Hi Dave,

I'm sorry for your present circumstances and I do hope things work out .. but I do not think I have good news for you.

Did you happen to read what I wrote about quitting or getting fired? And while you are at it you might consider trying to understand the concept of good cause.

If there is one basic principle about unemployment so many people do not understand it is that no matter what .. to get benefits the separation from the work almost always needs to be attributable to the work.

If you do not give the employer an opportunity to at least try to help solve your personal problem .. how can it be expected that they will have to pay for unemployment benefits.

If you had asked for the personal leave to work out the problems you were facing with your baby and childcare issues .. and they had refused to give you the personal leave .. you might of possibly had the ability to collect unemployment. If they fired you because of attendance because you were trying to work out childcare issues .. it would have been for absences that weere beyond your control and you would have gotten benefits.

But instead, you assumed you had a good reason to quit a job, move back to NJ and were denied benefits because you did not make any effort to first "preserve the employment". That phrase is written in one form or another in almost every set of unemployment statutes in this country.