Unemployment if you quit or were fired in Pennsylvania

Quit, fired or refused work

If you quit

If you quit, you must show you had a cause of a "necessitous and compelling" nature: a real and substantial reason that left you no other choice. You must also show you made every reasonable effort to keep your job before quitting.

Examples the state names:

• Health reasons, if you told your employer about your limits and it did not offer suitable work you could do
• Loss of transportation through no fault of your own that you could not fix
• Following your spouse who had to move for reasons beyond their control, when keeping two homes was not possible economically
• Changes to the job you did not agree to that made it unsuitable, or deception by the employer about the job when you were hired
• Accepting a temporary layoff under a union contract or an employer plan

If you were fired

Being fired does not by itself stop benefits. You are ineligible only if you were fired for willful misconduct connected with your work. The employer must show your actions rose to the level of willful misconduct. Failing or refusing a lawful drug or alcohol test can also make you ineligible.

If benefits are denied for the separation

If you quit without a necessitous and compelling reason or were fired for willful misconduct, you can qualify again after you work and earn at least six times your weekly benefit rate. Self-employment earnings do not count.

Refusing work

If you refuse suitable work without good cause, you stay ineligible until you get later work of a permanent nature. If the work you refused was temporary, the ineligibility lasts only as long as that work would have lasted.

Law: Pa. UC Law secs. 402(a), (b), (e), (e.1), 401(f)

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: 3

Starting with the third week you claim, each week you must apply for two jobs and do one work search activity (for example, a job fair, a workshop or a PA CareerLink activity). You can limit applications to jobs like your last one in pay and type within a 45-minute commute; if that leaves fewer than two jobs, do another work search activity instead. If you work part time and earn more than your partial benefit credit, one application is enough that week. Some people are exempt, such as union hiring-hall members in good standing, people with a written recall date, people in approved training and Shared-Work participants.

Records to keep

Keep a weekly record of your job applications and activities. L&I can ask to see it at any time for two years from the effective date of your claim. You can use the Work Search Record form (UC-304) or your own log.

Law: Pa. UC Law sec. 401(b)(1); Pa. UC Law sec. 34 Pa. Code ch. 65

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)

Noncitizens

What the state says

If you are not a U.S. citizen or U.S. national, have your Alien Registration number ready when you apply. You must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Free help

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