Collecting Unemployment Benefits in Mississippi
- To qualify for Mississippi unemployment, you must have had no fault in your loss of work. You also must be able to work. (Those who aren't should file for Social Security benefits instead.) The MDES also looks at your base period -- the first four of the last five calendar quarters before you filed for unemployment. You must have worked as a covered employee for at least two of the quarters in your base period to qualify for Mississippi unemployment benefits. Your high quarter earnings must be greater than $780, and your total base period wages must be more at least 40 times your calculated weekly benefit amount.
- If you believe you qualify for benefits or if you're unsure if you do, file your claim for them with the MDES. You can do file your claim by either going to the Access Mississippi website or calling 888-844-3577. You'll need your Social Security number if you're a citizen. You'll need your alien registration number or visa number if you're a noncitizen eligible to work in the U.S. You'll also need all your personal contact information, including a valid email address and phone number that the MDES can use to contact you. Finally, gather all of your former employer's contact information, the dates you worked there and the reasons you left.
- After you file your claim and the MDES verifies your eligibility status, you'll receive a notice with your eligible benefits calculated. Your weekly benefit amount on Mississippi unemployment insurance will be your total earnings from your base period's high quarter divided 26 and rounded down to the nearest dollar. Your maximum benefit amount per year is one-third of your total base period amounts. The MDES divides the maximum benefit amount by your weekly benefit amount to determine how many weeks of payments receive.
Mississippi state law says that no matter what you qualify for, you'll never receive more than 26 weeks of payments at $235 per week from the Mississippi unemployment insurance plan. So if the calculations put you outside of this cap, the MDES will adjust your benefit down to the maximum the law says you can receive. - When you receive your notice of benefits, you'll also receive instructions to certify for those benefits. Certifying is just filing a weekly claim for your benefits and verifying that you still meet the eligibility requirements. It also release your payment to you. To certify for your Mississippi unemployment benefits, you must call the unemployment hotline at 866-946-6487 or login online on the Access Mississippi website (see Resources). For each week you wish collect unemployment, you must certify after the week in question has needed but before the following week ends. Unemployment weeks start on each Sunday at 12:01 a.m. and end each Saturday at midnight. For example, if you're certifying for the week of March 6 through March 12, 2011, you can't certify until after midnight on March 12. But you must certify before 12:01 a.m. on March 20.
