Can You Collect Extended Benefits in New Jersey With Two Successive Unemployment Claims?
New Jersey is one of the states that offers extended benefits to its claimants after regular state unemployment benefits and federal extensions. Extended benefits are the last level of unemployment you can collect before your claim is over. There is no eligibility deadline
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Extended Benefits
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Extended unemployment benefits are unemployment above and beyond your regular state benefits and any federal extensions available by law at the time of your claim. Your benefit amount remains the same as it was during your regular state benefits and the federal extensions that followed. New Jersey extended benefits are funded 50 percent by the state and 50 percent by the federal government.
Exhausting Your Unemployment
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New Jersey extended benefits are the end of the line when it comes to unemployment. When you’ve exhausted any available benefits, your claim is over. As of September 2011, New Jersey law only allows you 13 additional weeks of benefit or 50 percent of your maximum benefit amount, whichever is less. When New Jersey’s total unemployment rate is 8 percent or higher, you can collect up to 20 weeks of benefits or half of your maximum benefit amount, whichever is less.
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Benefit Year Effect
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Once you’ve exhausted your New Jersey extended benefits, the only thing preventing you from filing a new claim is whether your benefit year is over. Your benefit year is the 52 weeks that follow the Sunday preceding the day you filed your original claim. Depending on whether you were able to collect federal unemployment extensions, your benefit year may end before you even get to collect extended benefits. This means you can refile your claim as soon as your extended benefits end.
Successive Claims
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It’s possible to collect extended benefits during two successive claims because New Jersey doesn’t have a deadline on extended benefit eligibility. As long as you can qualify for benefits and exhaust all prior levels of benefits before the extended benefit level, you can collect. However, it’s hard to do so in successive terms because eligibility regulations require you to work between claims and if you were only collecting unemployment during the prior year, you won’t meet that requirement.
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