Updated: Sep 19, 2024

Unemployment benefits can provide a critical financial lifeline to people who suddenly find themselves out of work. However, if you don’t meet the eligibility criteria, you can be denied benefits. Each state administers its own unemployment program under federal guidelines, so the specifics vary from place to place, but the general rules are the same.

Insufficient Wages

To receive unemployment benefits, you must meet your state’s requirements for wages earned during a time frame known as the “base period.” According to the U.S. Department of Labor, most states define the base period as “the first four out of the last five completed calendar quarters.” A brief explanation: Each quarter is a three-month block of the year — January through March, April through June, July through September and October through December. For example, say it’s May, and you want to file for unemployment. The most recent completed quarter was January through March. So the base period the state will be looking at is the preceding January through December. A state can require that you earned a certain amount in wages in each quarter of the base period, a total amount overall, a certain amount in more than one quarter, or some other criteria. If you don’t meet your state’s wage requirement, your request for benefits may be denied.

Work Not Covered

Your wages in the base period must have been earned from an employer that pays unemployment taxes. Most employers do pay these taxes, but those with only occasional employees and minimal payroll may not have to. If your employer didn’t pay unemployment tax, then your work won’t qualify, and you may be denied benefits. Self-employed people do not pay these taxes and are therefore ineligible to receive benefits.

Fired

You’re only eligible for unemployment benefits if you lost your job through no fault of your own. This usually means you were laid off because your employer was restructuring or reducing its workforce. But it could also mean you were fired for something you couldn’t control — say, your personality just didn’t mesh well with others or you were just a bad fit for a job your boss stuck you in. If you were fired for misconduct, however, you probably will be denied benefits. The legal website Nolo describes “misconduct” as behavior that damages your employer’s business interest. That includes such things as criminal activity, sexual harassment, threatening behavior, chronic tardiness, intoxication on the job and insubordination.

Quit

You’ll usually be denied benefits if you quit your job voluntarily. However, if you can demonstrate that you had good reason to quit, and that any reasonable employee would have quit in the same situation, you may be able to get benefits. This can include unsafe working conditions or a cut in pay or hours that was so deep that you couldn’t make ends meet. It doesn’t include quitting because you just didn’t like your job or because there were limited opportunities for advancement. If you quit to “find other opportunities,” you’ll be denied benefits.

Not Looking or Not Unemployed

Unemployment benefits are supposed to act as a financial bridge between jobs, not as a permanent source of income. If you’re not available to work or not actively looking for work, you can be denied benefits. If you’ve been offered a job but turned it down, you can be denied benefits. Depending on your state, you can also be denied benefits if you take part-time work, even if the pay is only a fraction of what you were making in your old job.