After you have established your unemployment claim, you must certify that you are fully or partially unemployed each week in order to receive an unemployment payment.  This is done by filing weekly claims over the internet, telephone, and in some cases through the mail. 

 

We determine your eligibility to receive unemployment compensation in every week you file a claim for benefits. To determine your eligibility, we ask eight questions which are relevant to activities during the week being claimed:

 

1)	During the week ending ______ were you able to work and available for work?
2)	Did you refuse an offer of work or referral to a job?
3)	Did you quit a job during the week ending ______?
4)	Were you fired from a job during the week ending ______ ?
5)	Did you receive a back pay award or settlement?
6)	Did you receive Workers’ Compensation, vacation pay, or wages in lieu of notice?
7)	Did you look for work as directed during the week ending ______ ?
8)	Did you perform any work or earn any wages?

 

Depending on how you answer these questions, other questions may also be asked by the system.

 

Please answer these questions accurately.  A material misstatement of fact made in connection with filing a claim for unemployment benefits will result in liability to repay the benefits received to the Department. In addition to the liability to repay the benefits, the Department may impose "penalty weeks." If a claimant is assessed penalty weeks, that claimant will not be paid for future claims for benefits until he or she has "offset" the number of penalty weeks by filing the same number of weekly claims as penalty weeks. Unemployment benefits will not be paid for claims, which are filed to "offset" penalty weeks.

 

Timeframes for Filing Your Weekly Claim

 

Unemployment compensation benefits are paid for the seven-day period, which begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday. File your claim for benefits after Saturday. The earliest you can file a Weekly Continued Claim for benefits is 12:01 a.m. on the Sunday following the week for which you are filing a claim. The latest you can file a claim for a week is the following Friday before 4:30 PM.

 

If you do not file your Weekly Continued Claim by telephone or Internet by 4:30 p.m. on the Friday following the week being claimed, you must contact the Claimant Assistance Line toll-free at 1-877-214-3332 if you wish to continue filing for unemployment benefits.

 

If you stopped filing for unemployment benefits for any reason or missed filing a weekly claim, you must call the toll-free Initial Claims line at 1-877-214-3330 to re-open your claim before you can again call in your weekly continued claim for benefits.

 

What to Do if You Make a Mistake

 

If you have filed either by telephone or via the Internet and you discover you have made a mistake on your response to any question for your Weekly Claim, the error can be corrected as long as you re-file the claim on the same day before 4:30 p.m. If you discover you have made an error on a day other than the day you filed the Weekly Claim, or if your error is on a claim filed through the mail, you must call the toll-free Claimant Assistance Line at 1-877-214-3332 to correct the error.

 

Keep Filing Claims If You Have Filed An Appeal

 

If you file an appeal of a determination or decision that was not in your favor, continue to file a claim for benefits for each week that you remain unemployed until a decision on your appeal has been made. Filing each week ensures that you will be paid if your appeal is successful. In other words, if you don't file claims for benefits while your appeal is pending, you won't be paid for the weeks during which you failed to file a claim, even if your appeal is successful.