Collecting Unemployment in Illinois

For those who have recently been laid off, check with the unemployment agency to find out what qualifies as eligibility. Despite what the reason the company gave for the layoff, the company may be required to pay unemployment if the layoff had anything to do with lack of work.

Check the requirements and fill out the paperwork. It is best to check eligibility rather than regret not checking later. The unemployment agency and/or the hr department at the company who issued the layoff may be able to help you sort through the paperwork.

To apply for unemployment in Illinois, visit:
http://www.ides.state.il.us/individual/certify/default.asp

Be sure to visit or paste this link into an Internet Explorer 6.0 (or greater browser). This website requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater as of the date of this article.

When you apply, you need to have the following:
Your Social Security Card Number
Your Spouses Social Security Card Number (If applicable)
Your Dependents Social Security Card Numbers (if applicable)
Name of your Employer
Employers Mailing Address
Dates of Your Previous Employment
Reason for Separation of Your Employer (Only certain dates of Employment require a reason for separation.)
Alien Registration Information (Only if you are not a citizen.)
If you worked this week, the amount of income you earned.
For further information on what you will need when you apply, follow the prompts to step you through the Illinois application process.

Once you have applied for your benefits, you will need to call the teleserve approximately two weeks after your application. You will receive information in the mail of how to perform this process.

Our experience is if we try to call our local unemployment office, we end up on hold for approximately an hour (typically) and at the end of the hour the system automatically hangs up on us.

We were informed the best way to handle this is to go in person to the unemployment office with our questions. This works much better and I highly recommend this to others. If you need more information about the unemployment process in Illinois, simply visit your local office. You may save yourself a lot of grief.

When filing for unemployment, it is best to ask lots of questions. It is best to ask lots of questions rather than get turned down for unemployment because of an error. The unemployment office in Illinois is available to help you find answers to your questions.