• city hall entryway image by Aaron Kohr from Fotolia.com
  
  The state of Oklahoma offers unemployment benefits to people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. These benefits provide a temporary source of income until the unemployed person can find new work. In most cases, they only apply to people who have been fired without cause; however, someone who has voluntarily left with good cause may be able to receive the unemployment benefits.
  
  

Qualifications

• Oklahoma employment law stipulates that you must meet certain qualifications before you can begin receiving unemployment benefits. At the time of filing, you must be unemployed or working fewer than full-time hours and earning less than the amount you would be receiving in weekly benefits. Additionally, your earnings must total at least $1,500 from an insured employer, and your total base period wages must equal at least 1 1/2 times your high quarter wages.
  
  

Benefit Amount

• The state calculates your benefit amount from your base period, which is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the first day of your benefit year. A calender quarter is three months: January to March, April to June, July to September and October toDecember. For example, if you began receiving benefits in November, your base period would run from July of the previous year to September of the current year.
  
  Your benefits are paid on a weekly basis, and each payment should total 1/23rd of your highest-earning quarter during the base period. However, the payment cannot be more than $430 or less than $16.
  
  

Application Process

• An application for unemployment benefits can be made online or by telephone Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Oklahoma City residents should call (405) 525-1500. People living outside the Oklahoma City metropolitan area should call (800) 555-1554. The application requires your Social Security number, the name and address of your last employer, and the dates through which you worked there.
  
  

Out of State Applications

• Oklahoma accepts unemployment applications from persons living out of state if they worked innstate during the base period. Their benefit amount will be limited to the time they actually worked in Oklahoma.
  
  

Claim Filing

• You must file weekly claims starting from the time at which you begin receiving unemployment benefits. This can be done either online or by telephone through the Teleclaim system--(405) 525-1500 for OKC residents and (800) 555-1554 for everyone else. Filing on a weekly basis is strongly recommended because claims older than 14 days will not be paid.
  
  

Earnings Reports

• Because any income affects your benefit amount, you must report any earnings you receive while you are unemployed. These reports must include the number of hours worked, and the week in which the work was performed.
  
  

Maximum Amount and Duration of Benefits

• According to Oklahoma employment law, the maximum amount you can receive in unemployment benefits for the year is the lesser of 26 times your weekly benefit amount, 25 percent the state's annual wage two years ago, or half of your total wages during the base period.