Benefits for Reduced Wages

• If you apply for unemployment benefits while still working or receiving income, the PDLI may approve your application if it meets the partial unemployment requirements. Partial unemployment offers you part of your total eligible unemployment benefits for each week based on the income you earned for that week. It’s less than you would receive if you were totally unemployed but provides some relief for those with reduced wages.
  
  

Eligibility Requirements

• To collect Pennsylvania unemployment, you have to meet a general set of eligibility requirements including being unemployed through no fault of their own yet willing, able and ready to work. You also must have earned at least 16 credit weeks during your base year. In addition, you must earn less than 140 percent of your weekly benefit amount in income each week, and you have to work as many hours as your employer offers you.
  
  

Certification Process

• If you qualify for partial unemployment benefits, you have to file your claims certification every other week. During the process, you have to verify your continued eligibility for each week of unemployment you’d like to collect. The process also serves as your request for payment from the PDLI. During your certification, you must report the wages you earned from your current job to the state so it can determine how much your partial payment for each week will be.
  
  

Determining Compensation Amounts

• The PDLI determines your partial benefit amounts by using your partial benefit credit. The partial benefit credit, 40 percent of your weekly benefit amount, is the amount you can earn each week without affecting your payments. Everything you earn over the partial benefit credit is deducted from your eligible weekly amount and you receive the rest.