Unemployment Resource
Phone: (775) 684-0350
Eligibility
To receive unemployment checks, you must be: Filing your claims as required - Claims filed late may be denied. Able to work - You must be mentally and physically able to work your normal work week. EXCEPTION: If you should become physically unable to work while continuously filing for Unemployment Insurance, you must advise your Telephone Claim Center promptly to protect your benefits. You may be eligible to continue to be paid benefits until such time as you are offered suitable work.
Available for work - Be ready to go to work. You must be willing to accept both full-time and part-time work. You must have transportation and have made necessary child care arrangements. You cannot have conditions or barriers which prevent you from accepting work immediately.
Actively seeking work - To meet availability requirements you must make a "good faith" effort to find work. You must use those methods which a reasonable, prudent person, anxious to find work would use, including personal contacts. An active personal work search effort is required. Several in-person contacts should be made each week. Our staff will advise you if you need to make more contacts. FAILURE TO CONDUCT AN ADEQUATE WORK SEARCH CAN RESULT IN A DENIAL OF BENEFITS. To meet work search requirements you need to do the following:
You must actively seek work for which you are suited by experience and/or training. Apply for work in a method that is most likely to result in employment. Apply to employers who hire people with your experience and/or training.
You must make new in-person employer contacts each week. Mailed applications are acceptable only if this is the customary way to find work in your occupation. Employment agencies, newspaper ads, and phone calls are possible ways to find employment but do not take the place of in-person employer contacts. You must use all means available to find a job including your Nevada's JobConnect office or the Job Service office in your area. Make repeat contacts with employers only if you are encouraged to do so by the employer or if the employer states there is a chance for a job opening in the near future.
Apply in person with the individual who has the authority to hire, and file a written application for work whenever the employer will accept it. Contact employers during the hours of the day and days of the week when hiring is normally done.
If you are registered and on the out-of-work list with a union that has exclusive referral to jobs in your occupation, you must meet reporting requirements of that union and be available for dispatch to jobs.
You must be willing to accept the pay and hours which are customary in the area for your type of work. If you are unsure of the prevailing rate of pay or hours for your type of work, ask a division representative in the JobConnect office or the Job Service office in your area. You should be prepared to immediately accept any offer of suitable work.
You must keep a weekly record of your work search contacts. (Pages for recording the work search are provided at the end of this document.)
File a claim
You are required to furnish your Social Security number on claim forms under the legal authority of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Your Social Security number will be used for processing your claim, gathering statistics and determining your eligibility for unemployment benefits.
Public Law 98-369 provides for a sharing of income and eligibility verification information among certain state agencies. If this information is requested by any of these agencies, it will be provided to them.
Your social security number will also be used to report the unemployment benefits you receive to the Internal Revenue Service. The Employment Security Division may require that you present two pieces of identification, preferably your Social Security Card and driver's license, when you file a claim. The department representative will document what ID you present.
If you worked in more than one state, you may be eligible for a Combined Wage Claim. The base period wages from all states in which you worked are combined and you may be able to make the choice of whether you want to file against one state where you worked or if you want all wages combined. An unemployment claims representative can explain the options and procedures for filing a combined wage claim if you think you might qualify for one.
Benefits are not based on need, but on your earnings during a certain period of time -- the base period. The more money you made during the base period, the more your weekly benefit amount will be until you reach the maximum.
The base period is defined as the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding your initial claim for benefits. You may be entitled to an alternate base period claim, if you had an on-the-job injury. Your claims representative will explain the requirements to you.
If you are monetarily eligible, your weekly benefit amount will be 1/25 or four percent of your highest quarter earnings. This amount cannot be more than the maximum weekly benefit amount which is set by law each year, beginning July 1.
Your claim begins the Sunday of the week you first file an Unemployment Insurance claim. Benefits cannot be paid for weeks prior to the beginning Sunday of your claim. Accuracy is essential when filing reports to claim benefits. Report the facts exactly as they happened. We send a copy of your claim for Unemployment Insurance to your last and, in some cases, next to last employer. The law allows the employer to send us any facts which may affect your eligibility for benefits, including why you are no longer working there.
You file your weekly claims using the automated filing system called QuickClaim. Your MONETARY DETERMINATION will be mailed to you. This determination tells you if you had enough base period wages to qualify for Unemployment Insurance benefits. Keep in mind, however, this is only the first step toward determining if you will receive benefits. It does not mean that your checks will automatically start coming. Your monetary entitlement is explained on your Monetary Determination.
Remember- This is only the first step in determining your eligibility. The reason you became unemployed and other factors will also be considered to determine if you will receive benefits. If you are eligible for benefits you will receive your benefit checks by mail.
The Career Enhancement Program (CEP), sponsored by Nevada employers, is a training and employment program designed to assist Unemployment Insurance claimants return to work through intensified work search or job skill training which enhances their employability.
The purpose of the program is to place program-qualified, job-seeking clients into training and retraining programs designed to increase their potential for employment, and decrease the probability of future unemployment. It also ensures that Unemployment Insurance claimants continue to meet eligibility requirements to receive benefits.
You may be randomly selected for the CEP. Should this be the case, you will receive a letter stating that you have been selected to participate in the program. Make sure to follow the instructions on the letter, as failure to do so may cause your claim to be delayed.
However, if you are not randomly selected for the CEP, you may contact your JobConnect office CEP representative to inquire about becoming a CEP volunteer.
You are allowed to file weekly claims for benefits from outside your normal labor market area and residence for a period of two weeks. If you want to continue to file for unemployment out of the area in excess of two weeks, you must contact your Telephone Claim Center for further claim filing instructions.
If you are currently filing and relocate from out-of-state to in-state or leave Nevada and move to another state, you must contact the Telephone Claim Center to file a reopen claim to initiate an address change.
If you work part-time and/or earn less than your weekly benefit amount, you must contact the Telephone Claim Center for further instructions.
QuickClaim is a fast, convenient way to file your Unemployment Insurance claim by telephone. QuickClaim provides current information about your last two unemployment checks and your benefit balance.
QuickClaim is filed by you each week on a touch tone telephone. (A pulse tone telephone will not work on this system.) To see if your telephone will work on this system, find the tone/pulse switch located above or below the keypad, on the side, at the rear or bottom of the phone. Then make sure the switch is set to tone.
To file a weekly claim for Unemployment Insurance benefits, obtain check information, or your benefit balance, just dial the QuickClaim telephone number for your area;
Northern Nevada call (775) 684-0350
Southern Nevada call (702) 486-0350
Rural Nevada Interstate call (888) 890-8211
The first time you call it may take four or five minutes to file your claim. It is important that you listen to each question before answering. Later, when you become familiar with the system, you can interrupt the questions to save time. To interrupt, just press the appropriate button on your telephone keypad to answer the question.
If you have any problems or doubts about how to answer the questions or how to use QuickClaim, contact the Telephone Claim Center.
IMPORTANT: If you are disconnected or hang up before the system confirms that your claim has been accepted, you MUST call again to file your claim.
If you want your weekly claim canceled after it has been accepted by the system, you must contact the Telephone Claim Center BEFORE 5 p.m. THAT DAY, or the next working day if you filed your claim on a Sunday or holiday.
The QuickClaim system will accept claims for the prior week only. You may call QuickClaim between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Pacific Standard Time seven days a week to file a claim.
It is important that you file your claim for the previous week within seven (7) days of the week ending date. If you do not file within seven days, your claim may be considered untimely and potentially disqualifying. You must contact the Telephone Claim Center to resume filing your telephone claims.
Example: If the claim week ends at midnight Saturday, February 17, the last day to file would be Saturday, February 24. If you have not called by that date, you must contact the Telephone Claim Center.
Remember that you are filing over the telephone every week and you will be paid Unemployment Insurance benefits weekly.
QuickClaim:
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Northern Nevada - (775) 684-0350
Southern Nevada -(702) 486-0350
Long Distance Interstate -1 (888) 890-8211
FILING WEEKLY CLAIMS BY MAIL
If you are not able to use the QuickClaim system, you will be given instructions by our claims representative on how to file your weekly claims by mail. Follow the instructions.
CLAIMS ARE CHECKED FOR ABUSE OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROGRAM
Each claim is thoroughly checked! All claims are matched by a computer to find out who worked while claiming benefits. All violators are prosecuted, fined and/or jailed. Others are penalized by disqualification which may run up to 52 weeks.
You must volunteer full information about anything which affects your claim. Withholding information is just as serious as giving false information. In any case, money improperly received must be repaid. Take our word, it is not worth it!
Source: Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation
