Nearly 90,000 people seeking unemployment benefits in New York failed to submit a weekly certification as required by the federal government, causing them to miss out on receiving needed aid, state labor officials said Monday.

The state Department of Labor will now be regularly sending emails to New Yorkers seeking unemployment benefits to tell them when they are able to begin certification so they can receive their money.

“Losing your job can be a disorienting experience — especially when it happens during a global pandemic — so we want to make it as simple as possible for New Yorkers to receive the money they are due,” Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in a statement. "That’s why we’re launching this campaign to make sure everyone who is applying for unemployment benefits knows how and when to submit their certification and claim the benefits they deserve.

“This is just another example of how we are using every resource available to connect New Yorkers with their money as quickly as possible, and we will not rest until everyone is receiving the benefits they deserve.”

The millions of people seeking unemployment quickly overwhelmed the Department of Labor’s unemployment hotline when the crisis began in March. New York officials have since added more people to respond to phone calls and bolsters its website capacity to handle the wave of claims from the newly jobless due to the pandemic.

At issue for the certification was a federal law that requires every American receiving unemployment benefits, including the traditional unemployment plus pandemic unemployment assistance, submit a weekly certification to claim their benefits.

The certification confirms a person is meeting all their conditions for receiving benefits and that they were unemployed for all or part of the past week, and are ready, willing, and able to work.

The Department of Labor pointed to a potential lag between claims processed and when they received a monetary determination letter in the mail which tells them when to begin filing.