How do you file your weekly voucher in Indiana?

Your first voucher is your waiting period week: Indiana law gives you no check for the first week of a claim, even when you meet every requirement. Every voucher after it covers the week that just ended, so each one asks about that week alone.

How to file a voucher each week

Uplink, the online claims system DWD runs, takes vouchers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

1. Wait for the week to finish. An Indiana benefit week runs from Sunday at 12:00 a.m. to Saturday at 8:59 p.m. Eastern time, and its voucher can be filed from the Sunday after.
2. Sign in to Uplink using the email address you applied with; that address is your Uplink username.
3. Answer the questions for that week and report any income you earned in it.
4. File the next voucher the following week, and every week after that.

Sunday and Monday are the heaviest filing days, so Uplink can run slow; later in the week is quicker. Asking DWD to send your notices by U.S. Mail does not change this part: new claims and weekly vouchers are still filed online.

What the voucher asks

One voucher covers one week, and it asks about:

• What you earned in that week, gross earnings from part-time work included.
• Whether you were able, available, and actively seeking full-time work, which is what DWD weighs on a claim.
• Your work search, which you also write down and keep week by week.

Circumstances such as a termination by your last employer, or severance pay at separation, can raise an issue on a claim. File the voucher anyway while an issue is holding up your benefits or an appeal is pending: all eligible payments are released once a determination is made. See how much unemployment pays in Indiana for what earnings do to a week's payment.

When the money arrives

You choose how you are paid immediately after you file the initial claim: direct deposit to a U.S. checking or savings account, or a prepaid debit card. The choice can be changed at any time in Uplink CSS.

The card is the U.S. Bank ReliaCard, managed at usbankreliacard.com, and questions about it go to U.S. Bank at 855-282-6161.

Once your Uplink claimant homepage shows a payment, the money can take up to 24 hours to reach your bank account or your card. DWD's payment options page covers both ways of being paid.

Your work search: 2 activities a week

To be paid for a week, complete 2 work search activities in it. These count:

• Submitting a job application to an employer that has, or is expected to have, openings
• Contacting or visiting those employers, following through on referrals, interviewing, or job shadowing
• Creating a resume or a cover letter, or creating or updating a professional networking profile
• Attending a job fair or networking event
• Registering for work with Indiana Career Connect, uploading your resume there, or searching for jobs online
• A WorkOne workshop, assessment, initial interview, follow-up meeting, re-employment plan, or RESEA orientation

That list is open, not closed. DWD asks you to do whatever secures full-time work or puts you in a position to, and it reviews any other activity you report to decide whether that one counts.

Write down what you did each week. Save the confirmation emails or other documentation for 6 months after the activity, because DWD can verify your work search at any point during the claim, and benefits may be denied if the activities turn out to be incomplete or inaccurate. DWD publishes a UI Work Search Activity Log for this, and you bring a copy of it to a RESEA meeting.

The requirement may be waived if you are enrolled in training approved by DWD, are a job-attached worker with a specific recall date no more than 60 days from the date of separation, or are a member in good standing of a DWD-authorized union hiring hall. The work search page on DWD's site carries the activity list in full.

If you are called in for a RESEA meeting

RESEA, the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment program, prioritizes the claimants DWD identifies as most likely to exhaust their benefits before returning to meaningful work. Your notification packet asks you to finish registering with Indiana Career Connect before the meeting.

Selected claimants must participate in all appointments and activities, or unemployment benefits stop. Miss a meeting without rescheduling it and your weekly payments stop until you attend one, and the weeks in between are not paid. Once you take part, the suspension should lift within a week.

You are not selected for RESEA if you are in DWD-approved training, have permanently moved out of state, are job-attached with a return-to-work date within 60 days of the last day you worked, use a job placement service as the UI department defines one (temporary agencies do not count), or belong in good standing to a DWD-authorized union hiring hall.

If something about your claim comes up at the appointment, DWD points you to its Benefit Call Center at 1-800-891-6499. The RESEA page on DWD's site explains what the meetings involve.

Going back to work, or stopping your claim

To stop the payments, stop filing vouchers: a week is claimed by filing its voucher, and a week you file nothing for is not claimed. Put the work on the voucher for the week you worked, with your gross earnings, before you stop.

Part-time work is different: you keep filing, and gross earnings go on every voucher while the job lasts.

The claim itself runs to your benefit year-end date, the Saturday that ends the 52nd week after you filed, and how long Indiana benefits last covers what that date does. If work falls through, or you are unsure whether to keep filing, DWD's Benefit Call Center takes claim questions on 1-800-891-6499.

A week that was paid and should not have been turns into a balance DWD collects. Denials, appeals, and overpayments covers how that works, and how to ask for a waiver.