Within the United States, unemployment benefits are often paid to people who have lost their jobs. This program is funded by both the state and federal governments. In most cases, the only people who qualify to receive unemployment payments are full-time workers who are dismissed for reasons other than poor job performance. For example, an individual who is laid off due to the decline of
. available work at a factory is probably eligible for unemployment. However, a person who is fired for not completing job duties is most likely ineligible. Other people who cannot receive unemployment benefits include self-employed individuals and part-time workers.Individual states determine the amount of employment that is paid and how long a person can receive benefits. The typical period for receiving money is 26 weeks during any particular calendar year. However, sometimes people are unable to find jobs by the time their 26 weeks of payments elapse. Depending on various circumstances, those individuals might be eligible to receive an additional 13 weeks of unemployment payments. In general, a fairly high rate of unemployment must exist in a state before it extends its benefits in such a manner.A person who wants to receive extended benefits must apply, since this process is not automatic. Not everyone who gets regular unemployment is entitled to these extended payments, so the application might be denied. For those individuals who do receive extensions, they typically get the same amount of money per week that they did when receiving standard unemployment. In some cases, the federal government steps in to extend unemployment benefits beyond the additional 13 weeks.To discover the status of unemployment benefits in a particular regions, people should contact their state unemployment offices for detailed information. A listing at http://www.job-hunt.org/state_unemployment_offices.shtml provides links to the official site for each state. More reference links: http://www.thesurvivorsclub.org/money/surviving-job-loss/how-long-can-you-collect-unemployment http://unemployment.com/unemployment-base-period/
