Unemployment Resource
Eligibility
To be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits, you must:
- Be fully or partially unemployed.
- Be unemployed through no fault of your own.
- Be physically and mentally able to work full-time.
- Be available for full-time work.
- Be registered with the Connecticut Works Center.
- Be actively seeking work by making reasonal efforts to find employment each week.
- Participate in selected reemployment services if you are identified as a dislocated worker by the profiling system.
- File your weekly claims as directed.
The general rule is that a person who voluntarily leaves suitable work without good cause, attributable to the employer, is not eligible for benefits.
For good cause to be attributable to the employer, it must relate to the wages, hours, or working conditions of the job. A change in conditions created by your employer or a breach of your employment agreement that is substantial and adversely affects you may be good cause to quit. Also, if the job itself adversely affects your health or aggravates or worsens a medical condition, it could be good cause to quit.
Regardless of the cause, in most cases, good cause attributable to the employer may only be found if you took reasonable steps to inform your employer of your dissatisfaction and sought to remedy the problem before you left. If you quit, it is your burden to prove that there was good cause for leaving. When applying for benefits, after quitting a job, you will be scheduled to attend a pre-determination hearing to establish whether you had good cause for leaving. Your employer will be notified of this hearing and will be invited to attend or to send in a written statement.
File a claim
Unemployment Insurance is temporary income for workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own and who are either looking for new jobs, in approved training, or awaiting recall to employment. The funding for unemployment insurance benefits comes from taxes paid by employers. Workers do not pay any of the costs. To qualify for unemployment benefits, you must have earned sufficient wages during a specified time (monetary eligibility).
A claim should be filed as soon as possible after you are separated from employment. To ensure the best possible customer service, the following call-in schedule for individuals filing initial or reopened unemployment is now in effect:
- Mondays: callers with social security numbers ending in numerals 0 through 4 can call the TeleBenefits "Dial to File" system.
- Tuesdays: callers with social security numbers ending in numerals 0 through 7 can call the TeleBenefits "Dial to File" system.
- Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays: callers with social security numbers ending in any numeral (0-9) can call the TeleBenefits "Dial to File" system.
Do not delay in filing a claim if you do not have your separation packet, which includes a pink slip. Your claim will be taken without it. Your claim is effective the Sunday of the week in which you first file for benefits. Ordinarily, you do not get paid for the weeks prior to the week you filed your initial claim.
Have your social security card and separation packet, if one was provided. If you are separating from the military, have separation form DD214, Member-4. Federal employees should bring separation form SF-8 and a copy of their most recent pay stub. If you are not a US citizen, you must have proof of legal alien status. Do not delay filing a claim if you do not have these documents. Your claim can be filed without them. However, there may be a delay in payment until the document is received.
You may file a claim for benefits by telephone in English or Spanish. Claims for Unemployment Compensation are now taken by telephone by calling the TeleBenefits Line. Once you have established a claim, you will file weekly claims by telephone. This automated system provides eligibility information on Unemployment Compensation Benefits and will allow weekly filing of benefits and provide information on the disposition of weekly continued claims, once a new claim has been established.
Your benefit amount is decided based upon your wages for a 12-month period that is called the Base Period. The time is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the calendar quarter in which you initiated the claim.
To determine if a person has sufficient wage credits, the law requires that he or she must have total base period earnings that equals or exceeds 40 times the Weekly Benefit Rate. Normally, the maximum number of weeks of regular benefits payable is 26.
If you are working part-time, your Weekly Benefit Rate will be reduced by an amount equal to two-thirds (2/3) of your gross wages for that week, rounded to the nearest dollar. To be eligible for this payment the law provides the following:
- You must be employed less than full-time.
- The number of hours you are working during the week is less than the number of hours customarily considered to be full-time for that job and/or employer.
- You must be available and looking for full-time work.
- You did not refuse additional hours.
If you receive a pension, the law requires that the Weekly Benefit Rate be reduced by the pro-rated weekly amount of the pension that was contributed by the employer. If you are receiving social security, the Weekly Benefit Rate will be reduced by an amount equal to 50 percent of the pro-rated weekly social security benefits. A pension reduction of the Weekly Benefit Rate will increase the number of weeks for which Unemployment Compensation Benefits can be paid. You must still be able, available, and looking for full-time work to be eligible for Unemployment Compensation Benefits.
If you are receiving a pension or Social Security at the time of your new claim, have your Social Security card and documentation of the amount you are being paid when you phone in your new claim. If you start receiving a pension or Social Security benefits after your claim for unemployment has been filed, phone the TeleBenefits Line when you actually receive your pension or Social Security benefits. Please have your Social Security card and documentation of the amount of benefits you are receiving.
