Tiers

• Indiana provides 26 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits for qualifying job seekers. Once the unemployed individual exhausts the state benefits, the federal government provides two tiers of emergency unemployment benefits to workers. This increases unemployment benefits by 34 weeks for 60 total weeks of benefits in Indiana through Tier 2. Tier 3 benefits provide 13 additional weeks in states that qualify with a three-month seasonally adjusted average unemployment rate above 6 percent. Indiana continues to qualify for Tier 3. Tier 4 benefits provide 6 additional weeks to states with a three-month seasonally adjusted average unemployment rate of 8.5 percent. Indiana dropped below that point in the summer 2011 and the federal government discontinued that tier of benefits.
  
  

Procedure

• The unemployed individual moves through the state benefits and tiers of emergency benefits in sequence, and must exhaust each tier before entitlement to the next one. The job seeker must perform job searches and meet requirements imposed by the Department of Workforce Development. After exhausting 26 weeks of state benefits and 47 weeks of federal emergency unemployment compensation benefits, the job seeker qualifies for EB.
  
  

Extended Benefits

• Extended benefits in Indiana provide the job seeker with 20 more weeks of unemployment benefits once the individual exhausts 73 weeks of state and federal benefits. The state can "trigger on" and "trigger off" this benefit in accordance with federal regulations, so the benefit may be intermittently available. This is the last 20 weeks available to the unemployed worker and the regulations for job searches and acceptance of suitable work are more stringent than for other tiers.
  
  

Changes

• The Indiana General Assembly made adjustments to the unemployment compensation insurance laws in 2011. Changes are effective in 2011 and 2012, but do not affect Hoosiers already in the unemployment compensation benefits process. Indiana is changing the unemployment laws for individuals who are on-call or work as-needed, as well as those who work with a company involved in a planned short-term shutdown. Head Start workers who are off for the summer cannot collect unemployment benefits under the new law. Employees who accept payment for retirement or voluntary resignation will not qualify for unemployment, and the Department of Workforce Development deducts severance pay from unemployment benefits effective October 2011.