Apply for Unemployment Insurance Benefits in the State of Idaho Online using this service.
Unemployment insurance benefits replace part of the income you lose when you become unemployed. It is a benefit available to workers who are out of work through no fault of their own. This means to be eligible, you must have been laid off due to lack of work, voluntarily quit with good cause connected with employment or were discharged but not for misconduct.
Unemployment insurance benefits are funded through a tax on employers, which is collected by the Idaho Department of Labor and placed in a federal trust fund. Money from that fund can be used for unemployment benefits and for no other purpose.
FAQs
How is my weekly benefit amount determined in Idaho?
The amount you receive for unemployment is based on your past earnings reported to us by employers that you have worked for in Idaho. We can use wages from other states, from work done as a federal employee and if you were active duty in the military (with some restrictions). We use the wages you earned in a period of time that we call your base period.
Can I work and still collect benefits?
If you work less than full-time during a calendar week, you can collect unemployment benefits for that week as long as your gross earnings are not equal to or greater than 1 1/2 times your weekly benefit amount.
- If you earn less than 1/2 of your weekly benefit amount, there will be no reduction in your unemployment insurance check.
- If you earn between 1/2 your weekly benefit amount and 1 1/2 times your weekly benefit amount, a dollar for dollar reduction will occur on your unemployment insurance benefit check.
What are Idaho’s unemployment monetary requirements to apply for benefits?
To be eligible for receiving Unemployment benefits in Idaho, you must:
- have sufficient earnings in the base period
- have worked and been paid wages for employment in at least two of the quarters in the base period
- AND have been paid at least $1,872 in wages in one of those quarters
- AND the total wages paid in your base period must equal one and a quarter times your highest quarter wages
What is a base period?
The base period is the four quarters of earnings that are used to determine how much unemployment you qualify for.
Idaho Department of Labor uses a regular base period of the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters. If you do not qualify using the regular base period, you may qualify using the alternate base period of the last four completed calendar quarters.
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