Unemployment Benefits Eligibility

General Benefits Eligibility Criteria

To receive unemployment benefits, you must meet basic Connecticut unemployment insurance benefit eligibility criteria. You must meet both work and wages eligibility criteria to collect any unemployment insurance benefits in Connecticut.

Work Eligibility Criteria

To meet work eligibility requirements, you must:

• Be fully or partially unemployed
• Be unemployed through no fault of your own
• Be able and available to work full-time
• Register with the American Job Center
• Actively seek work by making reasonable efforts to find employment each week
• Participate in selected reemployment services if required

Wages Eligibility Criteria

To meet wages eligibility requirements, you must:

• Have earned at least 40 times your Weekly Benefit Amount (WBA) during your total base period
• If you earned less than $600 during your total base period, you must use the alternate base period (See Unemployment Benefits Compensation)
• Earn less weekly income than your WBA
• Report all money received while you are receiving unemployment benefits 

Your benefit amounts are based on your earnings in covered employment in a base period, which consists of the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the date of your claim. 

Unemployment Availability Limits

When you meet all eligibility requirements for your claim to unemployment insurance benefits, you are granted a maximum of 26 weeks of benefits during the calendar year. The maximum Weekly Benefit Amount available to you in any one calendar year is $616. You should not file a weekly claim for unemployment insurance benefits for any week in which you were ill, injured, hospitalized, on vacation, or otherwise unavailable for work. You cannot collect unemployment benefits if you attend school full-time.

Unemployment Extensions

There are currently no extensions on the 26-week maximum limit for unemployment benefits in Connecticut. Federal extensions for state unemployment insurance benefits usually become available when the unemployment rate is abnormally high, as it did between 2008 and 2012. When Connecticut extends benefits, public announcements are made, and prior claimants are notified by postal mail