Unemployment Resource
Phone: (208) 334-4700
Eligibility
In order to qualify for Idaho unemployment insurance benefits you must:
- Be totally or partially unemployed through no fault of your own.
- Be a US citizen or legally authorized to work in the US.
- Establish monetary entitlement to benefits by having sufficient earnings in the base period.
- You must have worked and been paid wages for employment in at least two of the quarters in your base period.
- You must have been paid at least $1,326 in wages in one of those quarters.
- The total wages paid you in your base period must equal one and a quarter times your highest quarter wages.
- You must be available for full-time work.
- You must be able to perform full-time work.
- You must be willing to actively seek work.
File a claim
To file an Unemployment Insurance claim you will need the following information:
- Your social security number. If you are not a citizen of the United States, your Alien Registration number and card.
- The business name, complete address including zip code and phone number of all employers for whom you worked during the last two years.
- The dates your work started and ended for those employers.
- Your total gross earnings from those employers.
- The reason you are no longer working for those employers.
- DD Form 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, if you were a member of the Military Service in the past two years.
- Phone number you can be reached at during normal business hours (8:00am-5:00pm Mountain Time).
- Your county of residence if you live outside the state of Idaho.
- If you file your claim before Saturday at 12:00 midnight Mountain Time, your claim will start with the prior Sunday.
- The information you provide will be used to determine your eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits. It is important that your information is accurate and complete for all questions asked. The law provides penalties for withholding information or making false statements to obtain benefits.
If you are unemployed and wish to file a claim you may:
- Report to your nearest local Job Service Office.
- Call your nearest local Job Service Office.
- If you are filing a claim against Idaho, but live in another state, you may also file your claim by calling (208) 332-3574.
- File your claim during your first week of total or partial unemployment-to delay may cost you benefits.
The amount you receive for unemployment is based upon your past earnings. We look at what you earned in a period of time that we call your base period. We use the highest quarterly amount from your base period and divide that amount by 26 to determine the maximum amount you may receive per week on unemployment.
We use the wages reported to us by employers that you have worked for in Idaho. We can use wages from other states, from work done as a federal employee, and if you were active duty in the military (with some restrictions).
When you file for benefits, you will receive a form called a Monetary Determination. This form shows your base period, the employers who reported wages to us during the base period, and the amounts they reported. It will also show your weekly benefit amount, and the total amount you may draw during your benefit year.
If you think that any of the information is wrong on your Monetary Determination, you must contact the Department of Labor within 14 days from the mailing date of the Monetary Determination. (Click here for a list of the Job Service locations in Idaho.)
You should be prepared to show some kind of proof as to why the amounts shown are wrong, or proof that an employer you worked for does not show up on the Monetary Determination. We will investigate and possibly contact the employers you worked for to try and find out what the correct amounts are. You will receive a Monetary Re-Determination after we complete the investigation.
The law has a formula for calculating how many weeks of unemployment insurance benefits you may qualify for on your claim. The number of weeks of full entitlement you can receive will vary between 10 weeks at a minimum and 26 weeks at a maximum. The formula is a ratio of your total base period wages divided by your highest base period quarter.
Basically, the person who earns the most equal amount of money per quarter in the base period is awarded more weeks of unemployment. A person who has periods in the base period where they did not work as much, or earned much more than the other quarters will have their number of weeks reduced because of the ratio formula.
When you file a claim for unemployment, it is set up for a 52-week period. If you draw a full weekly benefit amount each week, you will run out of money in the number of weeks that you are entitled to. You can work and draw unemployment. If you are not able to find a full-time job, your unemployment benefits may last the entire 52 weeks. It just depends on what rate you draw those benefits out.
The base period is the four quarters of earnings that are used to determine how much unemployment you qualify for. The Idaho Department of Labor uses the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters as your base period.
Persons living in another state who want to claim unemployment insurance benefits against the State of Idaho must meet all the eligibility requirements.
You may file your claim by calling the Idaho Interstate Claims Unit at (208) 332-3574. The hours for the Idaho Interstate Claims Unit are from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM Mountain Time Monday through Friday.
If you are filing a claim against Idaho from another state and have any questions about your claim, please call: (208) 332-3574, or write to:
Interstate Claims Unit
317 W Main Street
Boise, ID 83735
If you work less than full-time during a calendar week, you can collect unemployment benefits for that week as long as your gross earnings are not equal to or greater than 1 1/2 times your weekly benefit amount. If you earn less than 1/2 of your weekly benefit amount, there will be no reduction in your unemployment insurance check. If you earn between 1/2 your weekly benefit amount and 1 1/2 times your weekly benefit amount, a dollar for dollar reduction will occur on your unemployment insurance benefit check.
Before any benefits can be paid, you must serve a waiting week. To serve the waiting week, you must have filed a claim and be entitled to benefits in all respects. You must also call the Tel-A-Claim system or submit a paper Continued Claim Report to report for your waiting week. You will not be paid benefits for the waiting week. You will only have to serve one waiting week per benefit year.
