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How much Unemployment will I get? How to Calculate Unemployment Insurance Benefit Amount

DKrunner | Nov 2, 2011 |

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It is very important to be able to calculate unemployment insurance benefit amounts before you start claiming; sometimes, those numbers can make a difference in big financial decisions, such as whether or not you would decide to stay at a place of employment part-time inside of going on to unemployment.

Calculating unemployment insurance benefit amounts allow you to make informed decisions that can help reduce or minimize financial stresses later on down the road.

How much unemployment will I get? How do I find out how much unemployment I will get?
The formula that each state uses to calculate unemployment insurance benefit amounts is different.

Typically, they use wages from a certain number of the last few quarters of earnings, and run it through an algorithm to come up with an average that denotes how much you should receive for unemployment.

The amount of unemployment that you will get will depend on how much money were making per hour, how long you have been working (the most important time period is in the last year to year and a half), and how many hours per week you were working.

Learn how to stand out among all the other job seekers.

Most states have both a minimum and maximum weekly benefit amount for unemployment insurance.

How much unemployment you will get will depend partially on what the minimum and maximum is for your particular state. In Washington State, for example we have a maximum weekly benefit amount of 538 and a minimum benefit of $138.

Often times even the minimums and the maximums will vary due to differing grants and different supplemental additions they will tack onto those checks.

In order to find out the exact amount that you are going to receiving your checks, call your state employment security Department and ask them “how much unemployment will I get”.

They will ask you things such as why you have left your current place of employment, how much you are making per hour, how many hours you were working per week, and how long you had been with that previous employer.

Depending on how long you were employed at your last job, they may also ask you questions about the last few years of your employment history.

Be sure and provide them with accurate and truthful information; they can check on all of your earning histories.

When they ask you for the last few years of your employment history, you should know that they may be able to get you unemployment insurance from the money you had made at your last few jobs, and not just the one you were just laid off from.

Though there are some unemployment insurance calculators out there, you should really just focus on calling your state employment security department in order to get a firm and reliable answer from them on how much unemployment benefit you will be eligible for each week.

The last thing that you want to end up happening is that you make hefty decisions regarding your income and your expected unemployment insurance benefits amount, just because an unemployment insurance calculation gave you an inaccurate number.

Use the hotline to call the helpful people in your state’s ESD and they will gladly give you an estimate of your UI benefit amount.