Determining an unemployed worker's eligibility for benefits is a multi-step process. First, the worker must have earned a sufficient amount of wages during his or her "base period" to be considered "monetarily" eligible.

A "base period" is four successive calendar quarters. Usually, the worker's base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the date the worker calls to file his or her claim for benefits. This is also referred to as "monetary method one".

To be monetarily eligible for benefits under "monetary method one", the worker must have been paid at least the current minimum quarter amount in one of the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters (Note: this minimum amount can change each year in July if the minimum wage per hour increases), and then also earn at least 40% of that amount in the remaining three calendar quarters of the base period.

Vermont has two other ways in which workers may be determined "monetarily eligible", which are sometimes referred to as "alternate base periods".

If a unemployed worker is not monetarily eligible under monetary method one, the department will use the last four completed calendar quarters preceding the effective date of the claim as the base period. Again, to be monetarily eligible under "monetary method two", the worker must have been paid at least the current minimum quarter amount in one of the four calendar quarters.

If the unemployed worker is not monetarily eligible under monetary method two, the department will use the last three completed calendar quarters and wages paid in the current quarter up to the effective date of the claim as the base period. Again, to be monetarily eligible under "monetary method three", the worker must have been paid at least the current minimum quarter amount in one of the four calendar quarters.

Since the wage reports for the last completed and current calendar quarters (used under the montearty methods two and three) will not yet have been recieved, a special request for these quarter's wages will be sent to all employers who furnished employement to the indivdiual during these quarters. 

Finally, there is a fourth method that is only applicable to individuals who have been receiving Workers Compensation benefits because of temporary total disability. A former Workers' Compensation recipient will be entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits which would have been available at the time of separation from employment, as long as the worker, at the time of filing, is not monetarily eligible under monetary methods 1, 2 or 3, the claim is filed within six months after the termination of the period of temporary total disability and the worker is otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance.

If an unemployed worker is monetarily eligible for benefits, the weekly benefit amount is computed by dividing the total wages paid in the two highest quarters in the worker's base period by 45. The amount of weekly benefits is capped each year, for the period beginning July 1st through June 30th of the following year. The current maximum weekly benefit amount payable in Vermont is provided under "Related Links".