Unemployment Insurance (Wisconsin)

If you lost your job through no fault of your own, file your Wisconsin unemployment claim online at my.unemployment.wisconsin.gov, then file a weekly claim for each week you want paid. Be honest with yourself about the size: Wisconsin's maximum is $370 a week, among the lower caps in the country. It is a bridge, not an income, which makes filing fast and stacking other help matter here.

Your Weekly Benefit Rate is 4 percent of the wages in your highest-earning base-period quarter. If that calculation comes out under $54, you do not qualify. A Weekly Benefit Rate Chart on the state site lets you look up your figure from your high-quarter wages before you file.

To qualify you need a rate of at least $54, wages in a second base-period quarter of at least four times your rate, and total base-period wages of at least 35 times your rate. If you fall short in the standard base period, an alternate base period may work, and recent wages that cannot count toward this claim do not reduce your benefit.

Two rules quietly cost people money. Wisconsin has a waiting week: the first eligible week of every new benefit year is unpaid before payments begin. And quitting without good cause makes you ineligible until you earn six times your weekly rate, while being fired for misconduct triggers a seven-week disqualification plus earning 14 times your rate.

Your full claim lasts up to 26 weeks, since the maximum benefit equals 26 times your weekly rate. If approved, the state sends a notice with your amount and number of weeks; if denied, you get a determination you can appeal, and the deadline on it is firm. Questions go to the Help Center at 608-266-3131.

Because $370 does not hold a household, stack support from week one. FoodShare reaches 200 percent of poverty, BadgerCare Plus covers adults to 100 percent with no coverage gap, and 2-1-1 knows which local funds bridge rent between jobs.