How do you request a weekly unemployment benefit payment in Minnesota?

Each request covers one week, Sunday through Saturday, and always a week that has already finished. A new week becomes available to request once the current week ends on Saturday, so the request you send this week is for the week before it.

Requesting a payment each week

DEED calls it a Request for Benefit Payment, and you make it through your account or on the automated phone line.

Online, log in to your account at ui.mn.gov and choose Request Benefit Payment. You can do that Sunday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with no restrictions on the day. The link shows only while you have a week available to request, and it disappears once you have sent that week until the current week ends on Saturday. If the link is missing and it has been a while since your last request, your account has gone inactive and has to be reactivated first.

Do not guess at a forgotten password. Guessing can lock you out of your own account, so follow DEED's reset instructions instead.

The phone line is the one with a schedule attached. The automated system takes your request on the day and half-day set by the last digit of your Social Security number, at one of these numbers.

• Twin Cities calling area: 651-296-3644
• Greater Minnesota: 1-877-898-9090
• Teletypewriter (TTY) users: 1-866-814-1252

That last row is the one worth remembering. Thursday and Friday are open to every digit, so missing your own half-day does not cost you the week. Request the payment on Thursday or Friday instead.

What the weekly questions ask

Every request asks whether you worked during the week you are requesting. You report the total hours worked and the total gross earnings for that week, before deductions and taxes. Report earnings for the week you did the work rather than the week the money reaches you, and if you worked for more than one employer in a week, combine the hours and earnings from all of them.

What counts as work here is wider than a regular job:

• hourly wages, salary, tips, and commissions
• a part-time or on-call job, even one you held before you lost your main job
• a temporary job, or work outside your usual occupation
• self-employment, work paid in cash, and volunteer work
• pay from your last week at the old job, and from your first week at the new one
• a training or trial period at a new employer, paid or unpaid

The hours and the earnings together decide the week. You are not eligible for any week you work 32 or more hours, or any week your gross earnings reach or pass your weekly benefit amount. If you work fewer than 32 hours and earn less than that amount, a partial payment may be made.

If your hours change from week to week, DEED tells you to request every week anyway and report the gross earnings and hours each time, and the system works out whether a payment is due and how much. If your layoffs recur, DEED says it is probably best to keep requesting even in the weeks you work your normal schedule, since payments are issued for the weeks you are laid off or your hours are cut.

DEED verifies the earnings and hours you report against what your employers report. Report the mistake straight away if you left hours or earnings out of a request. If they stay unreported, you will be held overpaid and required to repay the benefits, and denials, appeals, and overpayments covers how that debt is collected and what a fraud finding adds to it.

Your nonpayable week, and your first payment

Minnesota law requires one unpaid week before benefits can be paid, and DEED calls it your nonpayable week. It is the first week you are eligible, and it counts only if you had applied, sent a timely request for it, and were otherwise eligible. You get one nonpayable week in the 52 weeks after you apply, so someone unemployed again within a year of their account date does not sit through another.

The soonest a payment reaches you is the 3rd week after your benefit account is set up, because every request is for a week already gone and the first eligible week is the unpaid one. For most people the 2nd eligible week is the first that pays.

A first payment can land later if you earned more than your weekly benefit amount or worked 32 or more hours, if you are receiving other types of income, if you were not eligible for a week, if DEED cannot confirm your identity from what you gave it, or if it needs longer to decide your eligibility.

The money itself comes by direct deposit if you chose that during your application. If you did not, DEED sends you an unemployment debit card, and you can change the payment method at any time.

Your weekly work search

To be paid for a week you have to send a timely request, and be able and willing to immediately accept work in your usual occupation or other suitable employment. You also have to look for work, and be willing to accept the hours, wage, commuting distance, and other conditions of employment normal for someone in your occupation with your skills and experience.

Actively seeking suitable employment, in DEED's words, means taking action each week towards finding a job that matches your skills, experience, training, and mental and physical ability. Early on that action can be assessing what skills you have and what type of work to pursue, creating or updating a resume, seeing a job counselor, or going to job search workshops. The goal is to find appropriate openings each week and to present yourself to those employers as a good candidate.

That effort has to be serious every single week you request a payment, even with a part-time job in hand or a seasonal job you expect to be recalled to. You are not eligible for weeks you travel outside your commuting area, unless you travel to actively seek work, or weeks a medical condition or other circumstance prevents you from working or looking for work. Classes do not excuse the search: you have to keep looking, and be willing to rearrange or quit them to accept work. Full-time training DEED has approved is the exception, and it takes the place of the work search requirement.

Belonging to a hiring hall, a union that does not allow you to look for work on your own, removes the duty to seek work personally. You do have to stay in good standing with the union and on its work referral list.

The record DEED asks you to keep is of the hours you worked each week, Sunday through Saturday, regardless of when you will be paid for them. Its audit specialists verify work search alongside base period wages, the reason for your job separation, school attendance, and work and earnings. Hundreds of accounts are selected for audit each week, and an audit can reach weeks you requested 2 or 3 years ago.

When you go back to work

Returning to full-time work, or wanting to stop for any other reason, means making your final request and then stopping. You do not need to notify DEED that you returned to work.

Starting a job in the middle of a week is different. Report that week's hours and earnings even if you have not been paid yet, including hours and earnings from a part-time or temporary job, and you may still be eligible for a partial payment.

If you are unemployed again later, log in to your account at ui.mn.gov or call the automated phone system, and you will be guided either to reactivate your account or to apply for a new one. Be ready with details about your most recent employment, and make sure your contact information, tax withholding, and direct deposit details are up to date.