Information I need to file a Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance claim

Before filing for an unemployment claim with the state of Wisconsin, you need to be aware of certain information. These include documents and information that you are expected to provide such as Social Security number, a Wisconsin driver’s license number, if you have one and a Personal identification number (PIN).

The other requirement is to provide the names and addresses of the employees under whom you have worked in the last 18 months preceding the filing of the claim or since the last time you claimed these benefits from the state. You also have to show income records for those times that you were employed. This information that you provide is used to determine your eligibility for benefits and the amount of benefit that you may get.

There are many different aspects that determine the benefit that you would eventually derive. They include things like base period, weekly benefit rate and qualifying wages. The wages that you were paid during the base period are used to determine whether you qualify the benefits in the first place and if you do how much unemployment insurance you are entitled to receive.

The base period constitutes the time that the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the application for the claim was filed by you. If the wages for this base period are not enough to qualify then the four most recently completed quarters will be taken as the base period.

Weekly benefit rate is also a prime determinant. It is equal to 4% of the wages paid during the quarter which shows the highest wages within your base period. The lowest weekly benefit rate is around 50 USD and the highest is just over 360 USD.

The qualifying wages are those that were paid to you from your previous employment in the last two quarters of the base period. In order to qualify for benefits the wages in the four quarters should total at least 1890 USD and the highest quarterly wages must be at least 1350 USD. The lowest earning for three base period quarters should total at least 216 USD.

If you were already eligible to a prior benefit in the previous year, then in order to be eligible you must have worked since the beginning of that particular year and earned as much as 8 times the weekly benefit rate that you derived during that period at least.

The government has set a limit to the amount of money that you can be paid as benefits. The state is well aware of the fact that it can induce complacency in an unemployed citizen by providing them with benefits which take care of most of their needs. The benefit that is derived from the state is only meant to sustain you during the period that you are looking to find yourself an employment opportunity and is at best a supportive crutch that lets you stand on your own feet without outside help.

The total amount of benefits that you can be paid during any benefit period that lasts for 52 weeks a year is called the maximum benefit amount and is equal to 26 times the weekly benefit rate or 40 percent of the total base period wages that was covered to determine your eligibility, whichever is less.