How do you apply for unemployment in Minnesota, and on which day?

The official address for unemployment insurance information and services here is ui.mn.gov, and an older bookmark for the program sends you there automatically. Your benefit account is effective the Sunday of the week you file, and you can ask at the application to have it start the week before if you were unemployed then too.

When to file, and the day you are given

Apply in the same week you become unemployed or your hours are greatly reduced. A week you work 32 or more hours is not a week of unemployment, so there is nothing to claim for it.

A furlough counts. DEED describes a temporary layoff as time off without pay that an employer requires to cut costs and avoid permanent layoffs, whether for one day, for several, once, or on a regular schedule. Its advice to furloughed workers is to apply during the first week they are laid off or their hours fall below 32 a week.

Anyone applying for the first time is given one weekday to start, set by the last digit of their Social Security number.

You will only be allowed to apply on your assigned day, or on Thursday or Friday if you missed it. The schedule runs Monday to Friday, each of those days from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The day you file does not change the amount of benefits you receive, and anyone who already has an account can log in at any time to request a payment.

What to have ready

• Your Social Security number.
• 18 months of employment history: each employer's name, address, and telephone number, the month and year each job started and ended, your pay rate, and the reason you no longer work there.
• Your bank account number and routing number, if you want direct deposit. Without direct deposit DEED sends an unemployment debit card instead, and the payment method can be changed at any time.

Filing online, and filing without a computer

An application goes in either online or by phone, through the Applicant Self-Service System. DEED asks you to review its application process page before you start, to avoid delayed payments and denial of benefits.

The online system takes applications between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., and a first application still has to go in on the day the schedule above gives you.

Without a computer, the automated phone system takes an application Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

• Twin Cities area: 651-296-3644
• Greater Minnesota: 1-877-898-9090
• TTY, for the hearing impaired: 1-866-814-1252

The call opens with a language choice of English, Spanish, Hmong, or Somali. For any other language, press 1 and follow the prompts to speak to a representative and request an interpreter.

The account DEED gives you, and getting back into it

Your password and Social Security number are what let you into your benefit account, and together they serve as your electronic signature. You are responsible for all unemployment benefits paid on your account using your password, so never share it with anyone, a department representative included. If somebody else uses it to collect your benefits, repaying that money and carrying any penalty falls to you.

If you have forgotten the password, do not keep guessing, because guessing can lock you out of the account. Reset it at ui.mn.gov by selecting Applicants, then Log in to my account, then the Forgot your password link in the Existing Applicants section.

The phone route is the one for anyone who has also forgotten the answer to their security question. Call the automated system, enter your Social Security number, press the # key when it prompts you for a password, and answer the security question on the keypad. With no security question on file, or a wrong answer after several attempts, you are connected to a representative. If the answer is gone for good, Customer Service can mail you a temporary password.

Special situations

To build a Minnesota benefit account on wages from another state, at least some of your base-period wages have to have been paid by a Minnesota employer. If you did not work in Minnesota during your base period and your work was in another state or a U.S. territory, DEED says to contact the state where you last worked and apply there. Federal civilian wages work differently: all of them can be used, but with no covered Minnesota employment you apply against the state of your last federal duty station, and if that duty station was in another country and you live in Minnesota, you can apply to Minnesota.

Military wages can be used if you are physically present in Minnesota and have completed your first term of service and been discharged under honorable conditions. If you did not complete your first term, your branch of service decides whether your wages can be used, based on the narrative reason for your discharge, so it is still worth applying. National Guard and military reserve wages count when they were earned in unbroken active duty of 180 days or more, again with an honorable discharge. Quitting a job to follow a spouse whose work moved has a rule of its own, set out on who qualifies.

What happens in the first weeks

DEED mails you a Determination of Benefit Account showing your weekly benefit amount and the total amount of benefits available. It does not by itself mean you will receive benefits, and a separate determination follows if DEED needs to make a decision about your eligibility.

The soonest a payment arrives is the third week after your benefit account is established. Every request covers a week that has already ended, and the first week you are eligible is the nonpayable week Minnesota law requires before anything can be paid. Weekly claims and work search covers the requests themselves.

A first payment can run later than that if you had earnings greater 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 the information you gave it, or if it needs more time to decide your eligibility.

Paperwork and questions go to UI Customer Service, at P.O. Box 4629, St. Paul, MN 55101-4629. Its fax number is 651-205-4007, and Customer Service itself answers Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.