Unemployment Eligibility

• To receive unemployment benefits, you must meet a number of criteria as outlined by the state in which you live. The criteria may differ slightly by state, but they are relatively consistent. You must have been fired from your job or forced out, and you must search for a new job while you are receiving benefits, and then take a job if offered to you.
  
  

Payment of Benefits

• Benefits are not paid to you by the company that laid you off. Rather, if you are laid off, you must file a claim for benefits with the state agency that handles unemployed workers. The agency will then, if it deems you eligible for benefits, send you a payment every one to two weeks. However, the agency will likely contact your former employer -- if it still exists -- to report its payment of benefits.
  
  

Employer Contribution

• An employer will contribute to your unemployment benefits, but indirectly. Each state has its own system for charging employers money for administering unemployment benefits. Usually, employers will be charged a payroll tax, under which they pay the state an amount of money based on the size of their payroll. Sometimes, the more people that a company lays off, the more money it is required to pay the state. Your employer's failure to pay this money will not result in you being denied benefits.
  
  

Bankruptcy

• In no case can you file for unemployment before you have had your job officially terminated and you are no longer receiving any compensation. Even if you believe that your termination is imminent -- if, for example, your company has gone bankrupt and is firing employees -- you must still wait until the first day in which you are officially unemployed to file for benefits.