How Do Earnings Affect My Unemployment Benefits?

You may be eligible for benefits if you are less than fully employed during the week you are claiming. This means working less than 40 hours for an employee or self­employed and earning less than your excess earnings amount. The excess earnings amount is the amount of money you may earn while working less than full­time and still receive partial benefits. You must also be able and available to seek and accept full­time employment while working part­time.

The first $50 you earn each week does not reduce your benefits, although, you must report it. For each dollar over $50, $.75 cents per dollar earned for the week is deducted from your weekly benefit amount. This continues until you work either full time or reach your excess earnings amount during the week you are claiming benefits.

You must report any earnings you work for during a week you are claiming unemployment benefits, whether paid to you or not. The amount you report is the gross amount of earnings. You would report the answer on VICTOR as your gross earnings. If you worked for more than one employer, you would add the two gross earnings together and report the total on VICTOR. If you are self­employed, you must report gross receipts minus all expenses for the week.