UI Benefit Handbook - Eligibility

• Are You Eligible for Benefits? 
• General Eligibility
• Weekly Eligibility
• Disqualifications

Are You Eligible for Benefits?

Unemployment insurance, like other forms of insurance, requires that certain eligibility conditions be met before your claim can be paid. These conditions are designed to ascertain that you have been recently employed and are now unemployed through no fault of your own. You are eligible for benefits only for weeks in which you meet all of the eligibility conditions and are not subject to disqualification.

General Eligibility

1. You are unemployed through no fault of your own.
2. You were paid $1,600 or more in wages during your base period for insured work.
3. You were paid at least $440 of your base period wages at any time during the base period outside the calendar quarter in which your wages were highest.
4. You were registered for work with IDES. 

Weekly Eligibility

1. You filed your claim (certified) for the week as scheduled using the automated Tele-Serve system, via the Internet or as otherwise directed by IDES staff. 
2. You have served one “waiting week.” The “waiting week” is a qualifying period required by law. Benefits are not paid for this week. It is usually the first week for which you file your claim.
3. During the week, you were able to work, available for work and actively looking for work. 

Disqualifications
Even though you meet the eligibility conditions listed above, you will not be eligible for benefits if you are
disqualified. You will be disqualified if:

1. You quit your job without good cause attributable to your employer, unless you quit because of one of these reasons: health, sexual harassment, domestic violence, unsuitable work, acceptance of another job, failure to exercise bumping privileges or the need to accompany a military spouse or a spouse who is relocating due to employment.
2. You were discharged for misconduct connected with your work.
3. You failed, without good cause, to apply for or accept a suitable job offered to you. Under the law, a job is not suitable if:
   • The job opening exists because of a labor dispute.
   • The wages, hours or other working conditions of the job are not as good as those that exist for the same kind of work in the same community.
   • Your safety, health or morals may be endangered.
   • You would have to resign from or be prevented from joining a union to get or keep the job.
   • You would displace another worker under a collective bargaining agreement and cause that person to be laid off.
     
     Note: If any of the first three disqualifications apply to you, you will not be eligible for future benefits until you find another job and earn an amount equal to or more than your weekly benefit amount in each of four calendar weeks, and then lose that job through no fault of your own. (A few types of work cannot be used to requalify.)
      
4. You were discharged because you committed a felony or theft in connection with your work. You may be denied all benefits based on wages paid you up to the date of your discharge.
5. You are unemployed because a labor dispute has caused a stoppage of work at the place where you work. You may be denied benefits until the stoppage ends. If you can show that you and all the other workers in your grade or classification were not participating in or directly impacted by the labor dispute, you will not be denied benefits even though there is a stoppage.
6. For the same week for which you claim Illinois benefits, you are receiving unemployment insurance benefits from another state or under a federal law such as the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.
7. For any week for which you claim benefits, you have been or will be paid or your employer is obligated to pay wages in the form of vacation pay, vacation allowance or stand-by pay for an announced shutdown for inventory or vacation purposes or if, in connection with your separation, the employer makes or will make such payment and files a timely designation of the period covered by the pay or for which you receive wages in lieu of notice or a back-pay award.
8. For the same week for which you claim benefits, you are receiving workers’ compensation for a temporary total disability equal to or more than the unemployment insurance benefits you could draw for the week. If the amount is less than the benefits, you may be paid the difference. 
9. Since the beginning of your prior benefit year in which you were paid benefits, you have not earned the required amount to qualify for a second year of benefits. 
10. You will be paid or have received a retirement pension or other similar periodic payment for the week for which you claim benefits. One-half (50%) of your retirement pension payment (if paid for in part by your base period or chargeable employer) or all (100%) of your retirement pension payment (if the base period or chargeable employer paid all of its cost) will be deducted from your unemployment insurance benefits. Retirement pension deduction is determined by using the following calculation: monthly amount of  pension is divided by thirty (30) then multiplied by seven (7), which is the weekly pension amount. If the  employer paid any part of the pension, then the weekly pension amount is divided by two (2) to determine one-half (50%). For example, an individual receives $1030.50 a month in retirement pension, of which the employer paid part of the pension and the weekly benefit amount is $331.00. The formula is as follows:

    Retirement Pension Example

    $1030.50 ÷ 30 = $34.35	Daily Amount
    $34.35 x 7 = $240.35	Weekly Amount
    $240.45 ÷ 2 = $120.225	50% of Weekly Amount
    $331.00 - $120.225 = $210.775	Round to the next highest dollar
    $221.00	Benefit Amount after retirement deductions

11. Your claim is based on wages that were earned while you worked for an educational institution as a teacher, researcher or administrator, you are between academic terms or you are on vacation or a holiday recess and you have the reasonable assurance of returning the following term. However, educational  personnel might qualify for unemployment insurance benefits between and within an academic term if they have sufficient non-academic wages. You will be disqualified if you worked for any educational institution as a bus driver, crossing guard, cafeteria worker, clerk, etc. and you are between academic terms and there is reasonable assurance that you will return to such work in the term that immediately follows. Academic personnel might also be disqualified during a period of paid sabbatical leave. 
12. You are a professional athlete, you are between sport seasons and there is reasonable assurance that you will return to athletic services. 
13. Your benefits would be based upon wages earned while you were an alien who was not a permanent resident or did not have a work permit.