Your maximum weekly benefit amount is the most you may receive for each week of total unemployment. It is based on your total base period earnings. In New Hampshire the base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters preceding the week in which you initiate your claim. To establish a benefit rate, you must have earned a minimum of $2,800 in the base period with $1,400 in each of two separate quarters.

Your potential maximum benefit amount is the amount of benefits available to you in the benefit year at the time a decision is made on your claim. It is usually twenty­six times your maximum weekly benefit amount. But if you have been paid some benefits in the benefit year, your potential maximum benefit is your maximum benefit amount less all benefits already paid.