Domestic Violence and UI Benefits Frequently Asked Questions

You could qualify for unemployment benefits if you lost your job or if you had to quit or leave your job because of domestic violence. For example, you may have quit because you thought that staying in your job would threaten your safety or that of a member of your immediate family.

Members of your immediate family include:

The Department of Labor recognizes that domestic violence occurs in many relationships, such as:

Domestic violence is a pattern of threats and/or physical abuse by one person against an intimate partner or other family member to establish and maintain power and control. The abuse can be:

To find out more about domestic violence, see the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence's website, “Finding Safety and Support.”
To speak to someone about domestic violence, contact the NYS Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-942-6906 (Spanish and TTY also available). Domestic violence may spill over into the workplace. It can threaten your safety, the safety of a family member, or even your co-workers. You may have been fired or quit your job because your abuser:

Unemployment Insurance is temporary income for eligible workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. If you qualify, you can receive benefits of up to $504 per week, depending on how much you earned in the 18 months before you filed your claim. You can usually collect benefits for up to 26 weeks.

For more information about how your benefit rate is calculated, please see the Claimant Handbook or "How is my weekly benefit rate determined?"

To qualify for Unemployment Insurance benefits, you must meet these requirements:

  1. Job loss: You must have lost your job or quit your job because of domestic violence. We may ask you to provide verbal or written proof that continuing to work would threaten your safety or that of a member of your immediate family. To find out more about this proof, "What kind of documents may I need?"

You may also have a claim for employment discrimination if your employer fired you because you were a victim or survivor of domestic violence. To find out more, see "What can I do if my employer discriminated against me because I am a victim of domestic violence?"

  1. Earnings: You must have earned enough wages during your base period of employment before you filed your claim. The base period is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters prior to the calendar quarter in which your claim begins. To help you figure out your base period, see our fact sheet, "How Your Weekly Unemployment Insurance Benefit is Calculated." This information is also available in the Claimant Handbook.
  2. Work Readiness: You must be ready, willing, and able to work while you receive benefits. You must also actively look for work you can do while you claim benefits. We will ask you to document your work search efforts. If you are not available to work or physically or mentally capable of work because of the domestic violence, you may not qualify for benefits until you show us that you are again able to work and are trying to find a job.*

* If you became disabled because of the domestic violence, you may consider filing a claim for disability.
* If you cannot work due to domestic violence, you may qualify for public assistance. For more information, visit the NYS Office for Temporary and Disability Assistance website.

  1. There are special provisions under the CARES act, which extends eligibility to persons affected by COVID-19 and to those not traditionally eligible for benefits, including some people who were not employed.

See File Your First Claim for Benefits for instructions. You should file your claim in the first week that you have become unemployed. This is important because your first week is an unpaid week, called a "waiting week."

Services for non-English speakers: We offer help in Spanish and other languages. We also offer interpretation services. Call 1-888-209-8124 and follow the instructions on the phone system. Call during the hours of operation: Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.
If you are hearing impaired and another person is helping you: call the Telephone Claims Center at (888) 783-1370. If you use Telephone Device for the Deaf (TTY/TDD) equipment, first call the relay operator at (800) 662-1220 and ask the operator to call the Telephone Claims Center at (888) 783-1370.

When we get your claim for Unemployment Insurance and see that you lost or left your job because of domestic violence, we may need more information to make a decision. A representative will contact you to interview you about your last job and your separation from work. This may be by phone or by secure messaging. When you use our NY.gov online services to file your claim, we may contact you through the NY.gov secure message system. Make sure you check and respond to any messages or questionnaires we may send.

The representative will also ask your employer for information before we make a decision.

The claims representative will ask you questions about your claim and the domestic violence. If you lost your job, we will ask you why you think your employer fired you because of the domestic violence. If you quit your job because the domestic violence made you afraid for your safety or the safety of a family member (parent, spouse or domestic partner, child, grandparent, brother or sister), we will ask you questions about that. We will ask why you were afraid and why you felt you had to quit your job to stay safe.

Questions we may ask questions about your job include:

We may also ask if you attempted to keep your job. If the employer told you that you might lose your job, did you try to perform better? Did you try to manage absences or lateness? Did you ask your employer if you could transfer to another location?
We may also ask questions about the domestic violence:

If you quit your job to relocate to get away from the abuser, the examiner may ask:

Did your employer fire you when you asked for time off to go to court because of the domestic violence? Did you lose your job because your employer felt you weren’t doing your job well anymore? Were you late to or absent from work due to the abuse? Did you quit because your abuser harassed you at work? Did you quit because you were afraid for your safety? Did you quit because you felt you had to move when the abuser threatened to hurt your children? You should tell us this level of detail specific to your case.

If you called the police about the domestic violence, you can send us a copy of:

If you a have an order of protection, you should send us a copy. If the abuse was prosecuted, but did not result in an order of protection, ask the prosecutor to write a letter for you. If you did not call the police or get an order of protection, or you do not have a copy of these things, be prepared to explain why.
You can provide other forms of evidence. Because of the violence or injuries, did you or a family member ever:

If you did, you can send notes or a letter from any of these people about the violence.
You may use a letter from a lawyer or a religious leader explaining that you asked them for help in dealing with the violence as evidence for the interview. You may send a letter from your former employer or a coworker, or any other records or proof to support your claim. By law, we keep this documentation confidential.
If you did not call the police or a domestic violence program for assistance, or you did not get an order of protection, you may still be able to qualify for benefits under this provision.

We will review the details and documents both you and your employer provide, and decide to grant or deny you benefits. If we approve your claim, you should receive your first benefit payment three to six weeks from when you filed your claim. Then you will get Unemployment Insurance benefits weekly, as long as you continue to:

If we deny your claim, you will receive a “Notice of Determination of Ineligibility or Disqualification” in the mail telling you why. The notice will also explain:

You can file a discrimination claim with the New York State Division of Human Rights if you believe you were: