What is Unemployment Insurance?
Unemployment insurance is a program of social insurance meant to ease the economic burden of unemployment by providing a temporary source of income for individuals who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Unemployment is an insurance paid by your employer in the form of Unemployment Taxes. Terms Base Period – the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of your benefit year. Benefit Year – the period of 52 consecutive weeks which begins on the Sunday of the week in which your application is filed. Your claim is good for one year. However, you have a limited amount of benefits to draw in that one-year period of time. Covered Employment – work performed for employers who are subject to the Oklahoma unemployment compensation law. Weekly Benefit Amount – the amount you can receive for a week of total unemployment. Your weekly benefit amount is 1/23rd of your highest quarter taxable wages in your base period. It cannot exceed $409.
Unemployment Insurance is available to persons out of work through no fault of their own. The benefit replaces part of the income lost when you become unemployed. Although financed entirely by employer taxes, the application for benefits is considered a request from the fund and not a claim against the employer.