What Is the Amount of Weeks That Can Be Claimed Under Unemployment Benefits?
Unemployment benefits are divided in weekly increments. Even when a state offers biweekly payments, it's two separate weeks of benefits instead of one 14-day period of benefits. One of the common questions you might have after being approved is how many weeks of benefits you can claim. The amount depends on the way your state calculates benefit weeks and the information in your base period.
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Your Base Period
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Start by calculating your base period. The base period is the first four of the last five complete calendar quarters before you applied for benefits. Your state uses the wages in your base period to determine your weekly benefit amount but only the wages paid by an employer who paid unemployment taxes on your salary. Although the formula varies by state, you usually receive about half of your average weekly salary from your highest earning base period quarters as your weekly benefit payment.
Maximum Benefit Amount
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In states that use the maximum benefit amount, or MBA, method, the next step is to determine your maximum benefit amount using their formula. The formula can vary, but it is often just a percentage of your total base period wages. That percentage is the amount of unemployment benefits you can collect per benefit year, the 52 weeks following your initial unemployment claim. When you divide your maximum benefit amount by your weekly benefit amount, you can calculate how many weeks you can collect. Remember, if you collect partial unemployment for some weeks because you either earn income or don't meet eligibility for each day of that week, your MBA will stay the same. This means, you may collect more weeks because you haven't exhausted your MBA yet due to the partial payments.
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Credit Weeks
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Other states use the credit week method. Credit weeks are base period weeks where you earned more than the threshold amount set by state law. Check with your state labor office for the threshold applicable for your state (see Resources). For every credit week you earned in the base period, you get a benefit week in your benefit year.
State Maximum Benefit Weeks
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The amount of benefit weeks you are eligible to collect payments is limited by the state unemployment laws in your area. Even if your MBA or your credit week calculations make you technically eligible for more, you won't receive more weeks than the state maximum. Each state also sets a maximum amount of benefit weeks you can collect to prevent you from using unemployment as your sole source of income all year round. This too can vary, but almost all states cap it at 26 weeks.
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