|
Waiting
Period — To satisfy a waiting
period requirement, no benefits are payable for your first
7 days of unemployment in your first claim in a period
of continuing unemployment, unless
you have already served a waiting period in the benefit
year. Benefits are payable for each remaining day of unemployment
in your first claim. For example, if you claim all 14 days
in your first claim, you will be paid benefits for 7 days.
If you are eligible and your claims are continuous from
one benefit year to another, you generally will serve only
one waiting period in your period of continuing unemployment.
A period of continuing
unemployment means a period of time
for which you file claims for unemployment benefits where
(1)
each claim has 5 or more valid days of unemployment, and
(2)
each claim begins within 15 days after the previous claim
ends. For example,
claims for the 14-day periods beginning June 17 and July
15 are in the same period of continuing unemployment.
The second claim starts within 15 days after June 30, the
last day of the claim period beginning June 17. So benefits
are payable for days over 4 in the claim period
beginning July 15. If the second claim began July 16, however,
a 7-day waiting period would apply because that claim would
start the first period of continuing unemployment in the
new benefit year.
If you have at least 5, 6 or 7 days of unemployment
in a 14-day period, you should file a claim for benefits.
Even though no benefits would be payable if the claim is
your first claim in the benefit year, your claim must be
filed in order to satisfy the waiting period requirement.
After your first claim, benefits will be paid for all days
over 4 for other claims in the benefit year.
Normal
Benefits —
You can receive normal benefits for as many as 130 days
(26 weeks) in a benefit year, but your benefits cannot be
more than your base year wages counting not more than a
prescribed amount for any month. Benefit rights are exhausted
when a benefit year ends (normally June 30) or earlier if
benefit payments equal base year creditable earnings.
Example:
For purposes of determining maximum normal benefits payable
in the general benefit year beginning July 1, 2002, monthly
earnings of up to $1,356.00 are counted for months in base
year 2001. For base year 2002, the monthly compensation
base for maximum benefits is $1,421.00.
Extended
Benefits —If you have 10
or more years of service and exhaust your normal unemployment
benefits, you may be eligible to receive extended benefits
for up to 65 days (7 consecutive 14-day claim periods having
10 days payable in each). Also, if you are not qualified
for benefits in the current benefit year, but received normal
benefits in the previous year, you may still be eligible
for extended benefits.
To qualify for extended benefits, you must
not have voluntarily quit
work without good cause or voluntarily retired.
Accelerated
Benefits — Under certain
special provisions, if you have 10 or more years of service,
you can receive benefits before the regular beginning date
of a benefit year. In addition to having 10 or more
years of service, you must be qualified for the next benefit
year, but not the current year, and have 14 or more consecutive
days of unemployment.
Daily
Benefit Rate — Your
daily benefit rate is 60 % of the daily rate of pay for
your last job in the base year, but not less than $12.70
a day nor more than 5% of the monthly compensation base.
For example, the monthly compensation base for 2001 is $1,050.00,
which results in a maximum daily benefit rate of $52.00
for periods beginning after June 30, 2002. The maximum daily
benefit rate is subject to increases under indexing rules
reflecting the growth in average national wages. Contact
your local RRB field office if you need information about
the maximum benefit rates for other periods.
Your daily rate of pay is your straight-time
rate of pay including any cost-of-living allowances, but
not including overtime or other extra pay.
For mileage employees in train and engine
service, the straight-time rate is the rate of pay for the
number of miles in a basic workday, depending on occupation
and class of service. Earnings for miles run over
the number of miles in a basic workday do not count.
Number
of Days of Unemployment — After
you have satisfied the benefit year waiting period requirement,
benefits are generally paid for days of unemployment over
4 in 14-day claim periods.
Strike
Benefits — If you are unemployed because of a strike, benefits are not payable
for your first 14 days of unemployment due to the strike.
If a strike is in violation of the Railway Labor Act or
is not authorized by the national office of the striking
labor organization, unemployment benefits are not payable
to employees participating in the strike. However,
employees not among those participating in an illegal strike,
but who are unemployed because of the strike, may receive
benefits after the first 2 weeks of the strike.
|
