If I Quit My Job, am I Eligible for Unemployment Benefits?
If you quit your job there still may be some ways to prove that you are eligible for unemployment benefits. These may have different restrictions depending upon where you live, but here are a few reasons why you won’t get unemployment benefits:
- You quit because you felt like it.
- You quit because you didn’t like the hours.
- You quit because you didn’t like the people.
- You quit because you didn’t like the pay.
Generally, being eligible for unemployment benefits means you must be willing to take any reasonable offer of employment that comes along. What is defined as reasonable can be tricky. If you’re making a six-figure income and can’t find a job that pays you more than minimum wage, you probably won’t lose benefits for not taking or holding such a job.
There are definite circumstances under which you can be eligible for unemployment benefits even if you had to quit a job. These include:
- Your employer cuts you down to half time or reduces your pay significantly.
- A medical condition that does not allow you to work at the same job.
- Hostile work environment conditions like discrimination, repeated sexual harassment, or threats to your person.
- Dangerous or hazardous work environment.
Some employers, if they recognize the reason you quit as valid, won’t fight you when it comes to receiving unemployment. Others may choose to state you are not eligible for unemployment benefits because you quit. Generally, when there is disagreement between the employer and employee over whether the employee is eligible for unemployment benefits, this is resolved through a hearing.
In most cases, unless the matter is strongly contentious, you can represent yourself at such a hearing and can depend on the fairness of the judge to decide. If an employer is being particularly difficult, and you quit under hostile work conditions, later planning to sue the company, you should consider having an attorney represent you at the hearing. Evidence at the hearing may be important to a later lawsuit.
Sometimes the matter of dispute at a hearing is whether an employee actually quit or was fired. An employer may try to get you to quit, but you should not agree to this. Nor should you sign anything stating that you quit your job on your way out the door. An employer wishing you to quit could have resorted to shortening your work hours, reducing your pay or benefits, creating a hostile work environment, which results in you being eligible for unemployment benefits even if you did quit. In other circumstances it may come down to a he said/she said hearing.
If you have been fired, you should immediately inform other coworkers of this decision, so you have backup. Do not sign anything without reading it through. It must be clear in a hearing that you did not agree to leave your job. You can refuse to sign anything if an employer fires you, since they are no longer your employer. This can help clarify the issue in a hearing if an employer truly has fired you.
Written by Tricia Ellis-Christensen
