Unemployment Benefits Information

Facts:

• New York Unemployment Insurance provides partial and temporary income when you are out of work.
• It pays about half the amount in weekly benefits of the job you lost.
• In New York, the maximum amount of weekly benefits you can receive is $405.
• You can get benefits for up to 26 weeks.
• No benefits are paid for the first week of unemployment after filing a claim.
• About 2 weeks after applying, you will receive a "Notice of Monetary Determination." This will tell you how much you will receive in weekly benefits if you are found eligible and will state how much you have earned over the last year and a half.

To Qualify, You Must:

1. Have a certain amount of earnings over the last year and a half.
   This means that you must have earned at least $1600 (pre-tax) in one of the following 3-month periods: January-March; April-June; July-September; or October-December. In the other 3-month periods, you must have earned at least half as much as you did in period during which you made the most money.
2. Be ready and available for work.
   You must be physically and mentally able to work on the days that you claim benefits for. If you do not have work authorization, you are not considered available for work. Legal permanent residents are eligible for unemployment benefits.
3. Be currently unemployed or partially employed.
   If you are working in any way, you do not qualify to receive unemployment benefits. If you are partially employed, for each day that you work in a week, your benefits are reduced by 25%. If you work two days a week, you can get 50% benefits.
4. Have NOT lost your most recent job by quitting or being fired.
   To claim unemployment benefits, you must have lost your job through no fault of your own. In some cases, you can get benefits if you quit for good cause (such as medical reasons that the employer would not accommodate) so long as you tried to work out the problem before quitting. If you were fired due to misconduct, you cannot get benefits. Failing to call in before missing a shift is usually considered misconduct. This does not include poor performance; you may be eligible for benefits if you were fired because of your careless or otherwise poor performance on the job. If your boss says that you were fired for misconduct and you don't agree, your boss has to prove that you actually were fired for misconduct before you can be denied benefits.
5. Be actively seeking work.
   This means that you must actively look for a job in the fields of work that you are trained and experienced to work in, and you must not refuse a job offer without good cause.

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