Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 2: Calculate Your Benefit Amount
• Part 2 of 2: Understand the basics of unemployment insurance
• Tips
• Warnings

When you are out of work, you can have an overwhelming fear of the unknown. Unlike other benefit programs, unemployment benefits are calculated as a percentage of your previous salary. To ease your mental workload during this challenging time, it might be a good idea to calculate your unemployment benefits so you can know in advance what your first benefit will be and, therefore, you can make a financial estimate. If you don't want to calculate your unemployment benefits, you might want to know how to calculate the unemployment rate in your country - then read this article instead.If you would like to calculate your unemployment subsidies, skip to step 1 to get started.

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Calculate Your Benefit Amount

1. 1 Study the laws of your state to find a definite answer. Each state has its own unemployment program, which works in partnership with the federal government. The rules for calculating unemployment benefits, as well as the conditions for recognizing a person as unemployed, vary depending on the laws of the state in which you live. Therefore, the items in this paragraph may not apply to all states. If in doubt, visit your state employment agency's website for the information you need..
   • For the purposes of this article, we will roughly calculate the unemployment benefits that are issued based on the laws of the two most populous states - California and Of Texas... This will reveal some subtle differences between different states when it comes to unemployment benefits.
2. 2 Know what information you need to calculate your weekly payments. As noted earlier, your WBA payments are calculated based on the percentage of income you received before you lost your job. Generally, the income that will be used for the calculation is based on what you earned during first quarter of the previous five business quarters... This counts as your "reference period". To calculate your WBA, you need to know how much you worked (in hours) and what you did during each quarter of this reference period... If you've kept your old spreadsheets, that's good, as they can come in very handy here. Otherwise, you will have to contact your employer (s) for data.
   • The calendar year is divided into four quarters, each of which consists of three months. Four blocks is Jan-Mar(Quarter 1), Apr-Jun. (Quarter 2), Jul-Sep. (Quarter 3) and Oct.-Dec. (Quarter 4). Typically, the level of income you will have to use to calculate your MBA is based on what you earned during the first quarter of the previous five business quarters.
     • For example, if you stated that you were unemployed in April (Q2), you will use your income for Q4, Q3, Q2 and Q1 last year. You will not use your Q1 income of this year.
3. 3 Determine your salary for each quarter of your reference period. Use your payroll, W2 forms, and / or the records of your former employers to find out how much you received in each business quarter of your reference period. As a reminder, your reference period includes four blocks leading up to the very last block.
   • As an example, we will calculate the unemployment benefits of a hypothetical worker in California and Texas. Let's say he applied for benefits in October. October is Q4, so we will use our revenue from Q1 and Q2 this year, and Q4 and Q3 from the previous year. Imagine that our employee conditionally earned 7000 dollars every three months, except for Q2 - then it worked 8000 dollars.
   • Please note that some states allow you to calculate your income during an interim reference period if the income from your main reference period is insufficient to qualify for benefits. Mitigating circumstances for filing an application vary from state to state - for example, in Texas you can only do so in the event of a wasting illness, whereas California does not have such restrictions.
4. 4 Identify the highest profitable quarter. It is not uncommon for self-employed workers to earn more in certain neighborhoods than in others, especially if they work on an hourly basis. Typically, depending on your state, your unemployment benefits will be calculated based on your income in your highest profitable quarter or your average income during your highest profitable quarter and other quarter or quarters. In any case, you will most likely have to identify your highest profitable quarter in order to accurately calculate your benefits.
   • In both California and Texas, your unemployment benefits are based on your earnings during a single high profit quarter in your reference period. However, this is not the rule in every state. For example, Washington State uses the average of your income over the two highest profitable quarters of your reference period.
5. 5 Find out your weekly payment by following your state's specific procedure. Each state has its own method of calculating the amount of weekly payments by beneficiaries. Regardless, it is usually as easy as multiplying your earnings during your highest profit quarter (or finding the average of your quarterly earnings - see above) by a specific percentage, dividing your earnings by a specific number, or simply using a spreadsheet. The end goal is the same in all states - to give you a certain portion of the salary that you were “given in the past” in the form of regular benefits. The amount you receive will always be less than the amount you received when you worked. Check your local employment agency website for the exact guidelines that apply in your state..
   • In Texas, weekly benefits are calculated dividing the income of the highest profitable quarter of your base period by 25 and rounding roughly to the nearest dollar... In other words, you get 1/25 of your quarterly income every week (whereas, working at the level of your highest profitable quarter, you would receive about 1/12 of your quarterly income every week - more than double). In the case of our hypothetical employee, $ 8,000 / 25 = $ 320. This employee would receive 320 dollars every week.
   • California uses a slightly different method. Unemployment benefits are calculated by comparing your wages during your highest profitable quarter with the targets in the table provided by the Employment Development Department. In case, based on $ 8,000 earned during the highest profitable quarter, our worker could receive benefits equal to 308 dollars... It should be noted that this is about 1/26 of his quarterly earnings.
6. 6 Expect your current weekly benefits to be withheld. Consider that the amount of your weekly benefit is maximum possible, but remember that you will not actually receive it completely. In fact, there are many reasons why you may not be able to “get” the full amount you receive in weekly benefits. For instance:
   • Unemployment benefits are considered part of a person's taxable income and can therefore be deducted from tax.
   • Unemployment benefits may be seized for child support, outstanding debts, etc.
   • Certain jobs may fall under certain rules when it comes to unemployment benefits. For example, if an employee working at a California school applies between semesters but provides reasonable assurance that she will return to work next semester, benefits may be withheld. However, if she ultimately refused to go to work, “delayed payments” could be issued retroactively.
7. 7 Expect to receive at least the state minimum or higher than the maximum. Different states have different "limits" on the weekly benefit amount - in general, the state will not pay more or less a certain amount each week. If, according to your calculations, your amount came out less than the minimum amount of your state, expect to receive the minimum amount and vice versa if you have counted the amount more than the maximum.
   • For example, in California, the maximum weekly benefit is $ 450. If our employee was fantastically rich and earned not $ 8,000, but $ 800,000 each during the most profitable quarter, he would still receive only $ 450 a week, but not $ 800,000 / 25 = $ 32,000.
   • In Texas, the maximum weekly benefit is $ 454, so this is the maximum a worker would receive.
8. 8 Calculate your maximum benefit amount as a multiple of your weekly benefit amount. No state will give you weekly unemployment benefits indefinitely. Usually, unemployment benefits "end" after a certain dollar amount has been paid. In order to continue receiving benefits thereafter, the unemployed person usually has to apply for a new claim or ask for an extension. Typically, your maximum benefit amount or your weekly benefit amount is the same as a predetermined number or percentage of your base period's income.
   • In Texas, the recipient's maximum benefit amount is multiplied by the lesser amount of the weekly benefit multiplied by 26 or by 27% of all income earned during the reference period. Our hypothetical worker's weekly payments are $ 320 - $ 320 * 26 = $ 8,320. His total income for the base period is $ 29,000. $ 29,000 * 0.27 = $ 7,830. The last amount is less, therefore, we can say that the amount of his maximum benefit is equal to 7830 dollars.
   • In California, the recipient's maximum benefit amount is multiplied by the lesser amount of the weekly benefit multiplied by 26 or half all income earned during the reference period. Our hypothetical worker's weekly payments are $ 308 - $ 308 * 26 = $ 8008. His total income for the base period is $ 29,000. 29000/2 = 14500 dollars. The first amount is less, therefore, we can say that the amount of his maximum benefit is equal to 8008 USD.

Part 2 of 2: Understand the basics of unemployment insurance

1. 1 Know what to expect in terms of frequency and rate of payment. Typically, a person receiving unemployment benefits receives money every week, rather than every two weeks or every month, as when paying a salary. The amount of each weekly payment is usually called the amount of the weekly allowance or the size of the weekly allowance (WBA or WBR) The WBA Unemployment Insurance varies according to the recipient's previous income - the more you earned earlier, the more you will receive in unemployment benefits.
   • While the only way to be sure how much you will receive in unemployment benefits is to apply, you can generally expect to receive about 40-60% of your previous income (depending on where you live).
2. 2 Be aware that unemployment benefits are subject to certain laws and restrictions. To prevent fraud and abuse of benefits, the federal government generally requires recipients to seek full-time employment as a condition of receiving benefits. From time to time, beneficiaries may be asked to provide evidence that they are doing so - to show a resume for the current month, records of correspondence with potential employers, job applications, etc. Recipients may also need to attend employment meetings or seminars.
   • In addition, there is no limit to the amount of unemployment benefits a person receives. Your Maximum benefits payable or Maximum amount of benefits(MBP or MBA) is the total amount the state will pay you in unemployment benefits over the life of your application (usually one year). When you receive this amount, you will most likely have to reapply and / or be interviewed to be eligible to continue receiving benefits. MBP varies from state to state.
3. 3 It is worth knowing that different states have different requirements for the unemployed. In order to receive unemployment benefits, you usually have to fulfill certain requirements. The employment agency usually checks if you are eligible by contacting you too, and with your employer, so don't lie about being entitled to benefits. In order to be eligible, you must lose your job for reasons beyond your control - for example, you cannot be fired for incompetence or you cannot leave your job because you did not like it and now you want to be recognized as unemployed ... There are also several common requirements that you may encounter depending on the state of residence:
   • You should have earned more than a certain amount during the reference period. This is usually a fairly small amount - if you worked most or all of your baseline period, even at a minimum wage job, that should be sufficient. This is to prevent people who worked very little during the reference period from receiving benefits.
   • Your estimated weekly benefit must be greater than a specified portion of your total income for a specified portion of your full base period. As mentioned above, this is done to prevent people who have worked very little from demanding benefits.
   • You must have worked a certain number of days or hours during the reference period. See above.

Tips

• You can use an interim reference period in case the number of hours of your traditional reference period was insufficient for the calculation. The number of hours required varies from state to state, but is usually around 680 hours.
• While not necessary, an unemployment lawyer can help you through the application process and calculate your weekly benefit.

Warnings

• Do not expect unemployment benefits to be paid to you for an extended period of time. In most states, you will only be able to receive benefits for 26 weeks.