My first unemployment payment still has not arrived - what worked for you?

I filed my claim 26 weeks ago after being let go as a payroll clerk. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. The page shows my claim as open but no payment date. Is there a step I could have missed?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 6 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.