Illinois Unemployment Benefits Calculator
Illinois claimant entry
Illinois agency-award worksheet
For Illinois, enter the weekly award, maximum balance, and payable weeks issued by Illinois Department of Employment Security; this route asserts no state-law formula.
Illinois Department of Employment Security controls Illinois eligibility and the monetary record; this worksheet only mirrors Illinois values for review and never awards benefits.
Illinois claimant source: https://ides.illinois.gov/unemployment.html — checked 2026-09-14 by this implementation.
Illinois: filing and evidence
Illinois is presented here in award-entry mode. Illinois Department of Employment Security reference material lists a Illinois ceiling of $859 weekly and 26 reference weeks, a pairing worth $22,334; neither figure proves monetary eligibility, payable weeks, or approval.
Illinois filing desk
Illinois unemployment benefits belongs with Illinois Department of Employment Security; this is the claimant-facing starting point.
https://ides.illinois.gov/unemployment.htmlIllinois wage record boundary
Illinois monetary eligibility uses the claim’s base period and qualifying wage distribution; a cap-only result would be misleading.
Illinois claimant next action
File through IDES and read the finding of unemployment insurance eligibility for the protest instructions. For Illinois, keep employer names, pay-stub dates, gross wages, separation details, and work-search records together; Illinois Department of Employment Security needs the Illinois record when checking base-period quarters and the monetary determination.
Illinois agency source link (https://ides.illinois.gov/unemployment.html) checked 2026-09-14; the federal comparison table is listed on the shared sources page.
Illinois pays a fixed 26 weeks and uses your two best quarters
Illinois sets the weekly benefit amount at 47% of the claimant's average weekly wage taken across the two highest base-period quarters. Averaging two quarters rather than reading one means an uneven year is smoothed, and the 47% replacement target is stated directly in the formula rather than emerging from a divisor.
- Duration is uniform at 26 weeks. Illinois does not scale the number of payable weeks to your work history; clearing the wage test is what matters, and every eligible claimant gets the same entitlement.
- Dependants widen both ends. The weekly minimum runs $51 to $77 and the maximum $628 to $859 depending on the dependants' allowance, so the headline maximum understates what a claimant with a family can receive.
- Qualifying is comparatively light. $1,600 in base-period wages with at least $440 earned outside the high quarter. That outside-the-high-quarter requirement is what stops a single short contract from qualifying.
- The total is capped at the lesser of 26 times the weekly amount or your base-period wages. For a low earner the second limb can bite before the 26 weeks are used.
- Part-time work: half the weekly amount is ignored. A 50% disregard is at the generous end of the national range.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Significant Provisions of State Unemployment Insurance Laws, effective January 2026. The report states it is not an official interpretation of state UI laws, so treat these provisions as a cross-check on the Department of Employment Security determination rather than a replacement for it.
Weekly maximums nearest Illinois
States whose maximum weekly benefit is closest to Illinois: