Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefit amount for claimants from Virginia are determined by the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) after reviewing your eligibility and past earnings in your base period. The base period is the first four of the last five calendar quarters. Calendar quarters are three-month periods, starting with January of each year. When you become eligible for unemployment compensation, your weekly benefit amount will be conveyed to you, but you can estimate that amount in advance, if you prefer.
VEC calculates your compensation amount by taking your past salary and factoring it in the State’s maximum benefits guidelines. If you are eligible, then you will be sent with a determination letter of unemployment benefit amount.
How to calculate Virginia’s Unemployment Benefits Amount
We have developed a tool to calculate approximate benefits amount. Check Virginia Unemployment Calculator to estimate your compensation
After evaluating your wages during the base period (the first four months of the past five calendar quarters) , Employment Commission takes into the fact the amount of money you have earned during the past 12 months as an employee. Average weekly wage earned during the two highest earning of the calendar quarters of your base period is very essential to calculate and consider your weekly benefit. Almost half of this is awarded as the weekly benefit amount by considering the earnings of $2,700 in 2 highest 2 quarters of Base Period [In short $2,700 in 2 HQs- To qualify for benefits, an individual must have earned at least a total of $2,700 in two quarters in the base period].
Your weekly benefit amount is calculated by using the formula 1/50 of 2 High Quarters or your minimum wage should be less than that of $18,900 in 2 Quarters.
Virginia UI Maximum Weekly Benefit Amount
Source of Virginia’s Unemployment benefit amount is the taxes levied on each employee’s payroll. In order to avoid claimants collecting huge amount on unemployment benefit, Virginia sets guideline on how much anyone is supposed to collect as benefits at the time of unemployment.
Though he/she has earned good amount in their base period on previous salary, you cannot afford to collect more than the determined maximum weekly amount. Maximum weekly benefit amount is $378 per week. Note: every year the maximum set amount changes depending on the average number of the employees in Virginia.
Virginia UI’s Minimum Weekly Benefit Amount
The minimum weekly benefit is determined as $54. An individual should have earned at least $18,900.01 in two quarters during the base period to qualify for the maximum weekly benefit amount.
Duration of the benefit amount varies from 12 to 26 weeks, it also depends on wages earned in the base period.
Duration of the Unemployment Benefit
Duration of the unemployment benefit you will be collecting through Virginia Unemployment Compensation is calculated based on the number of credit weeks you have increased during the base period.
A credit week is considered for the week where the base period earning would be more than 50 dollars. If the credit week is less than 17 weeks then you will be receiving 13 weeks of benefits. If it is more than 17 credit weeks, then you will be receiving 26 weeks of payments.
Maximum Number of Payments
There is only a limited number of unemployment benefit payments you can collect from the Virginia. From the beginning of the benefit year, [beginning of benefit year is the date you initially file for the unemployment benefit] out of the 52 week that follows, you are eligible to collect a total of 26 weeks of compensation regardless of how many times you have gone on and off unemployment during that benefit year.
After you exhaust your initial unemployment benefits you can apply and collect the Emergency Unemployment compensation with continuation of extended unemployment benefits funded either by State or Federal Unemployment extension programs of Virginia.
This guide explains how to apply for unemployment in VA . Follow step by step instructions that will help you file for benefits through PA unemployment office.
Determine your eligibility to file for unemployment benefits in VA
There are some basic rules for eligibility. Even if you meet some of these rules partially, you should still apply for unemployment because state unemployment offices make a reasonable attempt to process your claim, as long as you provide a good justification.
- You must have lost your job through no fault of your own.
- You must be willing and able to work. If you are physically disabled, you do not qualify.
- If you have received severance package when you lost job, you do not qualify.
- You must have earned minimum wage credits set by the Virginia Unemployment Agency
- You must have earned an average weekly wage of at least $50.00. This amount may change every year. You can get get complete eligibility criteria from state website mentioned in the next section.
Prepare documents required to apply for unemployment in
- Your name, address, social security number and other personal details such as telephone number, email address etc.
- Dependents name, date of birth and their social security number.
- Details of your previous employer. For each employer, you need to provide
- Name and address
- Telephone number
- Start and end dates of employment
- If you had out-of-state employment in the past 18 months, you also need to provide the employment details.
- Reason you lost the job – it has to be involuntary to be eligible to receive benefits.
You can submit your application for unemployment compensation online, off-line (by mail or by visiting local employment office) or through telephone. Online application is the quickest and most efficient option which would available 24 x 7.