Unemployment if you quit or were fired in Indiana

Quit, fired or refused work

If you quit

If you quit without good cause in connection with the work, you are disqualified. A claims investigator gets information from you and your employer and decides.

Examples the state names:

• Your employer arbitrarily (unreasonably) changed the terms or conditions of your work
• Safety violations at your work site
• Harassment
• Domestic or family violence
• Moving to follow a spouse who moved to another labor market (DWD's examples include a spouse who accepted a new job)
• Leaving to enter military service
• Leaving to take previously secured permanent full-time work with another employer and then working at that job
• Leaving to accept a recall by a base-period employer
• A medically substantiated physical disability, after reasonable efforts to keep the job

If you were fired

If you were discharged for just cause, you are disqualified. Indiana law lists examples of just cause, such as knowingly breaking a reasonable and uniformly enforced employer rule (including attendance rules), unexcused absences when there is no attendance rule, refusing to obey instructions, damaging the employer's property through willful misconduct, conduct endangering safety, lying on a job application, being jailed after a conviction, or a breach of a duty reasonably owed to the employer.

If benefits are denied for the separation

If you are disqualified for quitting without good cause or being fired for just cause, you cannot get benefits until you have earned pay in at least eight weeks totaling at least eight times your weekly benefit amount. Your maximum benefit amount is also reduced to 75% for the first such separation (85% of that for a second, and 90% of that for a third or later).

Refusing work

If you fail without good cause to apply for or accept suitable work, you cannot get benefits until you have earned pay in at least eight weeks totaling at least eight times your weekly benefit amount, and your maximum benefit amount is reduced. During weeks 5 to 8 of benefits you must accept work paying at least 90% of your previous wage, and after 8 weeks, work paying at least 80%. Refusing or failing a pre-employment drug test can also lead to a denial.

Law: IC 22-4-15-1; IC 22-4-15-2

Official source: Source page

You usually must be unemployed through no fault of your own. In most states this means you lost your job because there was not enough work.

Able, available and looking for work

Job contacts per week: 2

You must complete at least two work search activities every week you file a voucher. Activities that count include applying for a job, interviewing, contacting or visiting employers with openings, going to a job fair, attending WorkOne orientations or workshops, and searching for jobs online. Your work search can be waived if you are in DWD-approved training, have a specific recall date within 60 days of separation, or are a member in good standing of a DWD-authorized union hiring hall.

Records to keep

Keep a written log of your weekly work search activities and save confirmations for six months after each activity. DWD can ask for it at any time; if it cannot be verified, you may have to repay benefits. DWD has a Work Search Activity Log you can use.

Law: IC 22-4-14-3; IC 22-4-14-2(e)

Official source: Source page

To be paid for a week, you must be able to work, available to work and actively seeking work.

Law: 42 U.S.C. 503(a)(12)

Free help

Call 1-800-891-6499. Legal aid and other free help in Indiana → Official sources →