So in my last post I talked a little about the history of the Unemployment Insurance program here in NH. In this post I’ll talk in more detail about the specifics of the program and how and what it means for you. I’m assuming, since you are reading this, that you’ve lost your job. Or, maybe you’re being proactive and doing some research because you are worried about losing your job, something I wish I had done before it happened and I had to scramble to find out about NH Unemployment Compensation benefits (which I’ll just call UI benefits for the rest of the post to make it easier to read).
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I’ll go into more detail below but the basic process once you lose your job is to make sure you are eligible for benefits, file an initial claim with the NH Unemployment Insurance System (NHUIS), and, once your initial claim is filed you have to decide when to file your first Continued Claim to start to get UI benefits. This is the same process you’ll go through each time you file for UI benefits. There are some reasons to file your Continued Claim right away, you’ll start to receive UI benefits sooner, but there are also good reasons to wait to file which I’ll talk about in a later post.
So first things first, you have to decide whether you think you are eligible to file for UI benefits.
Covered Employment
The main criteria for eligibility is you have to have actually worked (obviously) in what’s called Covered Employment during a period before becoming unemployed and you have to be partially or totally unemployed through no fault of your own. Covered Employment basically means you worked and your employer paid into the Unemployment Insurance program. Most workers in NH are in Covered Employment but you might want to double check if you are paid solely on commissions or if you are self employed.
There are additional eligibility conditions which I’ll talk about later, but if you think you meet these first two conditions, that is you were employed and now you aren’t, you should probably move ahead and file your Initial Claim. If you intend to claim your last week of work, file your Initial Claim within three days of the last day you actually worked or else you’ll have to wait until the next week. I’ll go over filing your Initial and Continuing Claims in a later post.
Determination of Unemployment Compensation
Once you file your Initial Claim, that information is sent to the Benefit Adjudication Unit (BAU) which will then then undertake their own eligibility review – this generally involves checking the information you filed in your Initial Claim. You’ll then receive a Determination of Unemployment Compensation which gives you information on your UI benefits like how much you will receive (your Weekly Benefit Allowance or WBA, more on that later) and for how long you will receive the UI benefits. This step only tells you what you will receive if you also pass the BAU’s eligibility review.
Determination of Eligibility
Once that review is complete, you’ll receive a Determination of Eligibility which will tell you whether you will receive UI benefits or, if not, why you were disqualified. You can appeal any information in your claim by filing an appeal with the NHES Appeals Unit but it must be within 14 days of receiving your Determination of Eligibility. I’ll discuss the appeals process in more detail in a later post.
Eligibility Disqualifications
So what would disqualify you from being eligible for UI benefits? There are actually quite a few things that can disqualify you for UI benefits – most are obvious, some not as much – but they generally fall into these categories:
- you chose to leave your job (for almost any reason) which includes ending self-employment;
- you were dismissed by your employer for deliberate misconduct or other similar reasons (like turning up at work drunk or setting fire to your office);
- you aren’t available for work including not looking or not taking a job under most conditions;
- you are collecting UI benefits from another state; or,
- you don’t file your paperwork properly.
There are a lot of different situations or sets of circumstances for which you may (or may not) think you would be disqualified and are surprised to find you aren’t (or are as the case may be). In any case, the disqualification may only apply to certain periods of you unemployment and may affect you WBA in different way.
If you have a question about UI benefits or are looking for a little advice, leave a comment below. In my next post I’ll talk about applying for your Initial and Continued Claims.
