Arkansas Unemployment Benefits and Eligibility

COVID-xix UPDATE: Because the coronavirus pandemic has left and so many Americans jobless, the federal government has given states more flexibility in granting unemployment benefits. If you have questions about whether you're eligible for unemployment benefits read our COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits and Insurance FAQ and check out Arkansas claimant handbook.

A guide to unemployment benefits in Arkansas

In Arkansas, the Sectionalisation of Workforce Services administers the land's Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits program. These benefits are paid to workers who take lost their jobs through no fault of their own and who encounter all eligibility requirements. Unemployment benefits are designed to provide protection against a loss of income until beneficiaries are able to find full-time work again.

Employers pay for UI benefits through a tax they are required to remit. Workers exercise non pay any portion of the benefits, and no deductions are fabricated from their paychecks.

How exercise I file for unemployment insurance in Arkansas?

Here's a quick overview of how the unemployment insurance procedure works in Arkansas:

  1. Before you apply, make sure you come across all eligibility requirements. Some of the more important requirements include determining that you have earned enough wages during your Base Flow or an Alternate Base Flow, that you became unemployed through no error of your own, and that you're ready, able, and willing to accept a suitable job offer.
  2. Gather necessary documents and information. Before you file a claim for benefits, yous should gather several pieces of data:
    • Social Security number
    • Electric current accost and phone number
    • Contact information for all employers you accept worked for in the past 12 months
    • The start and terminate dates for current/most recent employer
    • Your Alien Registration number if you're non a U.S. citizen
    • Your DD-214 Member Copy 4 course if you lot served in the US armed services during the preceding eighteen months
    • Your SF-8 form, if bachelor, if you worked for the federal authorities during the past 18 months
  3. Submit an initial claim. You must fill out an Awarding for Unemployment Insurance Benefits on the DWS website. Filing a claim should take roughly xxx minutes.
  4. Choose how you lot volition be paid. Y'all have two options for receiving your benefits. Y'all tin receive a debit menu loaded with your benefit amount, or y'all tin choose straight deposit to take your benefits sent to your bank account.
  5. Wait to larn your benefit amount. Later on you file an Initial Claim, y'all'll receive a Detect of Monetary Conclusion. This shows the amount of wages that have been reported by your employers during the quarters in your Base Period. Verify the information is correct and contact DWS if yous want to challenge the corporeality.
  6. Determine the number of weeks y'all tin can depict benefits. If you go along to meet all eligibility requirements, y'all can receive payments for upwardly to 16 weeks within a i yr menses—though federal guidelines may extend your eligibility.
  7. Conduct an ongoing job search. You're required to expect for full-time work while drawing benefits. As part of this try, y'all must file with DWS Employment Services. Your job search efforts will be monitored and yous may exist required to attend employment training if selected.
  8. You lot can file an appeal if you're denied benefits. If you lot're denied benefits, then y'all can file an entreatment to claiming your eligibility determination.

Newly unemployed?

Several online services—similar FlexJobs, 360training, or MyPerfectResume—tin assist yous find work-from-home jobs, build a meliorate resume, or earn grooming certifications.

Where do I submit my claim?

Filing an initial claim

To file an initial merits, you must complete an Application for Unemployment Insurance Benefits via Easy Arkansas Claims (EZARC). The online application is available from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Filing a claim online should take about 30 minutes. After you submit your application, you lot'll go a confirmation page which you should impress out and save for your records.

Arkansas has fix up a temporary claims processing hotline for filing by telephone. Call 844-908-2178 or 501-534-6304 on any weekday between 8:00 a.one thousand. and 3:thirty p.m.

When you lot file an initial claim, yous establish a Do good Yr. The Benefit Year is the 12-month period beginning with the first solar day of the calendar quarter in which a valid claim is filed. If y'all're paid all of your benefits before your Benefit Year ends, you cannot file another claim until your Benefit Yr ends.

Later you lot file an Initial Claim, your Discover of Monetary Determination volition show the amount of wages that take been reported by your employers during the quarters in your Base of operations Catamenia. These wages are what is used to decide how much your Weekly Benefit Amount will be. If y'all find errors in the Determination, you lot should immediately contact a local DWS office and file a Asking for Reconsideration. Y'all have one year to file the request from the date shown on the Monetary Conclusion.

Your claim will get inactive if you practice non merits benefits for i or more than weeks. You should stop filing for benefits when you get back to work full-fourth dimension. To reactivate your claim, you must submit another awarding through EZARC.

If you worked in more than than ane state during your Base of operations Period, yous can combine your wages from all states into a combined claim, every bit long as y'all have at least one quarter of wages that you earned in Arkansas. Piece of work with a local DWS role to complete this type of claim.

Filing a weekly claim

Unemployment claims on a weekly basis are based on a calendar week beginning on Sunday and ending at midnight on the following Saturday. Your weekly claim for benefits must be filed within the 7-twenty-four hours catamenia immediately post-obit the Saturday of the calendar week you're challenge.

You can file your ongoing weekly claims through ArkNet. The procedure takes 10–xv minutes to consummate.

You can likewise call the state's ArkLine at 501-907-2590 to claim your week by phone. ArkLine is available Sunday from midnight to 6 p.m. and Monday through Fri, half-dozen a.one thousand. to 6 p.m. Services are available in both English and Spanish.

To file by telephone, y'all'll need to accept your Social Security number, your PIN, and your full gross earnings and hours worked for the week you're claiming. Y'all'll create your Personal Identification Number (Pin) when you set your initial merits.

FAQ

What are the eligibility requirements to authorize for unemployment benefits in Arkansas?

You must come across several requirements to be eligible to collect unemployment insurance benefits in Arkansas:

  • You must be either partially or fully unemployed.
  • You lot must be mentally and physically able to perform work that is similar to work you have done in the past or for other work that you're suitable for due to past experience or training you've received.
  • You must exist bachelor for work. There should be no circumstances that would keep you from working such as transportation or childcare problems.
  • You lot must take earned enough wages during your Base of operations Menstruation to come across the monetary eligibility requirements.
  • You must contact DWS if there are any circumstances that affect your availability for work. This can include starting a new business or becoming cocky-employed, working on a contract or commission basis, or attending schoolhouse or training of any kind.
  • You must actively seek piece of work. This tin can include contacting employers, completing applications in person or online, or other reasonable efforts to secure work.
  • You must register with the DWS Employment Services and y'all'll be required to contact a certain number of employers each week.
  • You may exist eligible for partial benefits if you work office-time and earn less than 140% of your Weekly Benefit Amount. Y'all'll need to report your earnings and whether you're working full- or part-time.

What if I am denied benefits?

You may be denied benefits for several possible reasons. Some of the more mutual reasons include:

  • If you lot quit your chore without good crusade or you're fired for misconduct.
  • Y'all refuse to take work or you refuse a recollect after being laid off.
  • Yous did non claim your weekly benefits in a timely fashion.

Subsequently you apply for benefits, yous'll exist sent a Notice of Agency Determination, advising yous of the DWS determination. If you're disqualified, you'll receive an explanation. You have the right to entreatment that decision if you so choose.

How do I appeal a denial of benefits?

If you're denied benefits, you can file an appeal with the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal.

To do and then, you must visit the nearest DWS local office and complete an entreatment form, or y'all can mail an appeal in writing to

Arkansas Appeal Tribunal P.O. Box 8013
Little Rock, AR 72203

Your entreatment must exist submitted within xx days of the date that your denial conclusion was mailed to yous. Be sure to clearly state the reasons for your appeal, include your name, address, and Social Security number, and adhere a re-create of the determination that was mailed to you.

While you're filing an appeal, yous should continue to claim benefits for each week you are unemployed. If your appeal is canonical, yous'll be paid for those weeks only if you've claimed them.

How much will I exist paid?

Currently, the minimum amount of unemployment benefits you can receive in Arkansas is $81 per week. The maximum is $451 per calendar week. Your weekly benefit amount in Arkansas volition be one twenty-sixth of your earnings in the highest paid quarter of the base of operations menses. In Arkansas, you can receive benefits for up to sixteen weeks.

You lot'll be paid a benefit based on how much your employer paid you during a 12-calendar month period called your Base Period. It is the first 4 of the terminal v completed calendar quarters prior to the quarter that you file your initial merits. The greater the amount of money you lot earned during your Base Catamenia, the larger your Weekly Do good Amount (WBA) volition be until you lot achieve the maximum corporeality payable under Arkansas police force.

If you do not meet minimum wage requirements during your Base Period, you'll be allowed to utilize earnings from an Alternating Base Period to help you authorize for benefits. The Alternate Base Period is the 4 completed agenda quarters immediately preceding the quarter in which the initial claim is filed.

All applicants must serve a Waiting Menstruation Week. During this week, you must file a claim for benefits, merely yous will not be paid for that week. However, Arkansas waived this waiting period for claims filed from March sixteen to April 18, 2022.

At that place are several types of payments you receive that tin affect your weekly do good amount. These types of income have to be reported:

  • Holiday Pay
  • Vacation Pay
  • Sick Pay
  • Paid Time Off
  • Bonus Pay
  • Lump Sum Separation Pay
  • Periodic Separation Pay
  • Pay earned by participating in war machine drills
  • Retirement Pay

If you lot do not report these earnings, you can be guilty of fraud. If convicted, yous could face criminal penalties and will be required to repay whatsoever benefits y'all received.

How will I exist paid?

When you submit your initial claim, y'all have 2 choices for receiving benefit payments:

  • Debit card. Later you accept claimed your first payable week, you'll receive your debit card in the post.
  • Direct deposit. You'll need to accept your banking information available when you lot file your initial claim if you lot desire to choose this choice.

You'll automatically receive your Unemployment Insurance Benefits on a debit bill of fare unless you lot choose to receive your benefits through direct eolith. You can notice the setup for the payment method on the Confirmation Page.

Practice I have to look for a job to become Arkansas unemployment benefits?

While you're claiming benefits, yous must actively seek full-time work. This search can include contacting employers, completing applications in person or online, or other reasonable efforts to secure piece of work.

You lot'll also register with the DWS Employment Services and seek out employment opportunities each week. You'll find out how many employers to contact each week after you submit your initial application. Yous'll need to go on a record of your contacts and present them as required by DWS, who will verify your efforts. You'll accept to report your chore contacts kickoff with the 13th or 19th calendar week of unemployment bounty—the week you start reporting your contacts depends on the area where y'all live or piece of work.

Federal law requires DWS to offer extra chore search aid to some claimants. This aid is provided through a Job Search Workshop that helps sharpen your skills in arranging job interviews, filling out applications, and much more. The workshop and materials are complimentary, and if you complete the workshop it will count as a task contact for that week. If yous're selected to attend a workshop and reject or practise not show up, you could exist denied benefits for the week.

In that location are sure instances when you may be exempted from conducting a work search:

  • If your hours with your last employer have been reduced from total-fourth dimension to part-time and yous work at to the lowest degree viii hours per calendar week for this employer.
  • If a new employer offers you full-time work that will brainstorm inside x weeks from the date the job was promised. You will need to provide written verification to DWS from the employer with the job offer and the start date.
  • If yous have been laid off or reduced to only function-time work but will be returning to total-time work within 10 weeks
  • If you're currently a member in good standing of a trade marriage that maintains a full-time hiring hall, your marriage hiring amanuensis may act as your agent to aid you meet work search requirements.
  • If you're attending approved training.
  • If yous're required to written report for jury duty.
  • If you lot feel the expiry of an immediate family unit fellow member, the work requirement volition exist waived for the day of the decease and 6 consecutive calendar days thereafter.
  • If yous accept a compelling personal emergency that requires you to withdraw from the labor market place for less than iv days of the calendar week.

For more information

For general data about Arkansas Unemployment Insurance benefits, telephone call the state'south ArkLine at 501-907-2590. Y'all can also phone call the Arkansas Division of Workforce Service customer line at 855-225-4440 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.g. (Monday to Friday).

You can also become answers to questions past accessing the country's unemployment insurance benefits website ArkNet.

Information is also available at any of the Arkansas Segmentation of Workforce Services Local Offices.

Eligibility Team

Written past

Eligibility Team

We are a team of experts dedicated to finding the right government programs for you. Our mission is simple: help people rapidly and hands understand which programs they might be eligible for—all in one place. Our team is defended to researching and providing you with the most relevant information. Nosotros compile simply the nearly trusted information from government sources into one place so y'all can find the facts you lot need and skip what y'all don't.