If you're eligible for unemployment benefits after your initial benefits period has ended, you can immediately refile by applying for extended benefits. There's no wait time. You could, for example, exhaust all your benefits, get another job and become unemployed a day later. Provided you still qualify, you can immediately file for an extension of benefits – even if you've worked only one day on your last job.
Although it's natural to think of this as "refiling," what you're really doing is applying for an extension of your original benefits. California uses the expression "reopening your benefits," which is a good way of thinking about it.
The details of benefit programs vary from state to state, but almost every state looks at your work and earnings history over a one-year base period to determine your eligibility. Whether you are applying for initial benefits, extended benefits or, as in California, reopening your benefits, doesn't matter. It's your period of employment and your earnings in the base year that matter.
Advertisement Article continues below this adIn Washington state, as in nearly all states, you count back five complete calendar quarters to establish the beginning of your base period, and then from that quarter you count forward four quarters. These four quarters comprise your one-year base period.
Here's an example. You file your claim in March 2017. It doesn't matter which day in March you file, because March, being an incomplete month, doesn't figure into the calculation. Similarly, March and the previous two months, January and February, comprising an incomplete quarter, are not counted either. Instead, you start counting back five complete quarters beginning with December 2016, the beginning of the first complete quarter. This takes you to October 2015. That's the beginning of your base year, which ends on the last day of September 2016.
Advertisement Article continues below this adThis base year isn't fixed. It's always a one-year window that keeps moving forward. This means that waiting to "refile" for additional benefits is a bad idea. Not only are you not getting benefits when you need them, you're taking a chance on losing your eligibility because you've now spent too much of this forward-moving base year unemployed.
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The Texas earnings requirement calculation is complicated. First, you determine your weekly benefit amount, which is what you earned in your highest-paid quarter divided by 25. The benefit is capped at $454 per week. $454 times 37 gives you $16,798, the minimum amount you must have earned to be eligible for benefits at the maximum benefits cap.
If you're applying for extended benefits in Texas, your total wages during the base year must be at least 40 times your weekly benefit amount. You must have also used all your regular benefits from previous claims and must be ineligible for unemployment benefits in another state.
Qualifying for benefits in Wyoming involves two separate base-year earnings calculations. You must earn a minimum of 8 percent of the average wage in Wyoming for the base year and have total earnings of at least 1.4 times your earnings in your highest-paid quarter.
Idaho has three earnings requirements. You must have earnings in a minimum of two quarters of the base period, your total earnings for the base period must be 1.25 times your earnings in the highest-paid quarter and your earnings in the highest-paid quarter must be at least $1,872.
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Many states have other complex ways of determining eligibility. In New York, for instance, if using the usual base year calculation makes you ineligible, the state will instead use an alternate base period consisting of the four most recent quarters. Even if the usual base year calculation establishes your eligibility, you can ask the agency to use that period instead if you believe your benefits will be higher.
How much you'll receive in extended benefits depends upon your state and the status of your claim. In most states, you'll receive the same weekly benefit amount during the extension period you received during your initial claim period. However, different ways of calculating eligibility in some states may still affect your extended benefits.
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