Unemployment benefits are only available to individuals who meet a series of specific requirements. These weekly payments are meant to temporarily replace (at least partly anyway) the income you were earning at the job you have just recently lost. The laws governing unemployment insurance are jointly made by both the United States Congress and each individual state legislature. You must initially apply for unemployment benefits through your particular state’s department of unemployment (sometimes also known as the department of social services or department of welfare depending on which state you live in). Because each state manages their own unemployment program, subject to the oversight of the federal government, there are different requirements from state to state. However, although the details may vary somewhat, the general rules on how to collect unemployment remain the same. We’ll discuss those in some detail below.
Unemployment insurance is not an entitlement program. Only those people who complete an application for payment and are out of work can possibly collect a weekly check. Benefits are reserved for people who lost their job due to no fault of their own (meaning if you quit or were fired for cause you cannot receive any compensation under this program).
You also have to show that you made a minimum amount of money during a period of time known in almost all states as the “Base Period.” The Base Period is is a twelve month time frame that starts when you disregard the current calendar quarter you are in when you submit your unemployment insurance application and the completed quarter just before the current one. You then use the next four calendar quarters (12 months total) as your Base Period. So, for example, if you are going to submit your unemployment application on October 1 of this year (which is the first day of the fourth quarter of the year), then you skip both the fourth quarter and the completed quarter just before it – the third quarter of the year (July, August, September) and then start adding up the second and first quarters of this year as well as the fourth and third quarters of the previous year. These four quarters will make up your Base Period.
You need to check with your state’s department of unemployment on how much money you need to have earned during the Base Period before you make too many other efforts in learning about how to collect unemployment.
How Much Do I Need To Earn In The Base Period?
Each state will have its own requirement as far as how much you need to earn during the Base Period. Many states have some type of hybrid requirement, where you earn a minimum amount during one calendar quarter of the Base Period as well as a total minimal amount for the entire Base Period. Others are simpler and will just want to see a minimum amount of earnings during some part of the Base Period in order to qualify.
The purpose for the Base Period minimums is to ensure that the employers you formerly worked for have paid into the unemployment tax system sufficiently to warrant providing you with any type of weekly unemployment claim. Remember, these payments are not a part of any entitlement program and are only for those who meet these strict requirements.
Source: kiplinger.com/columns/ask/archive/how-to-collect-unemployment-benefits.html
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