How much is your weekly benefit amount in Indiana?

DWD works your amount out from the wage credits in your base period and sends it to your Uplink inbox on the Monetary Determination. That form gives a possible weekly amount and an overall maximum for the claim, and it is not by itself a decision that you qualify.

How DWD works out your weekly benefit amount

Indiana law sets the arithmetic:

1. DWD totals the wage credits in your base period and divides them by 52. That figure is your prior average weekly wage.
2. Your weekly benefit amount is 47% of it, rounded to the next lower dollar.
3. Whatever the formula produces, the weekly amount stops at $390, a ceiling written into Indiana law.

Which quarters count as your base period, and the wages a claim has to show in them, are on who qualifies in Indiana. How many weeks that amount can be paid for is on how long benefits last.

Does severance pay affect unemployment benefits in Indiana?

Yes. If you qualify for benefits and also receive severance or vacation pay, DWD takes that money off your weekly benefit, and you cannot draw benefits for a week that severance or vacation pay covers.

Sub pay and private unemployment benefit payments start from the opposite rule. Indiana law says benefits are not denied or reduced because of what you receive under a private unemployment benefit plan your employer funded, in whole or in part, and no repayment of benefits can be claimed on account of it. The exception is a payment conditioned on your signing an agreement releasing claims against the employer: DWD counts that one as severance, so it is deducted the same way.

Severance or vacation pay at the time you were let go is also one of the circumstances DWD lists as putting an issue on a claim, and filing a claim covers the steps that follow your application.

Working part time while you claim

The first $100 you earn in a week leaves your payment alone. Above that, every dollar you earn comes off it, one for one. Both of DWD's own examples run on a $200 weekly benefit amount:

Partial benefits may also be available when your current employer cuts your hours below a regular full-time week, or when you take a new part-time job while you are claiming. Either way, those part-time wages go on every weekly voucher.

Weekly claims and work search covers the voucher itself.

What else comes off a week's payment

• Child support: up to 50% of a week's benefits can be withheld toward current or past-due support when you have a Title IV-D case.
• Days you cannot work: the payment drops by 1/3 for each normal work day you are unable to work or unavailable for work.
• Pension money: a pension, retirement, or annuity payment is generally deductible when the employer paid into the plan and that employer sits in your base period. DWD does not deduct it when the employer made all of the contributions to the plan, and it does not deduct a distribution you use to meet a severe financial hardship from an unforeseeable emergency beyond your control.
• An overpayment: once DWD has established one, 75% of each weekly payment goes onto the balance until it is paid in full. Denials, appeals, and overpayments covers how that starts.

If your amount looks wrong

The Monetary Determination explains the amount, the number of weeks you can be paid, and how to appeal if you disagree with it. DWD's Benefit Call Center takes questions about your own claim on 1-800-891-6499.