Waiting 21 weeks on my first unemployment payment - first time posting

I applied for unemployment in Detroit 21 weeks ago and the status page still says pending. I have been trying to stay organised about it. The page shows my claim as open but no payment date. What would you check first?

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