Unemployment Benefits
IC 22-4-15-1 — quitting without good cause or a discharge for just cause disqualifies until eight weeks are earned back
Someone who voluntarily left the most recent job without good cause in connection with the work, or was discharged for just cause, is ineligible until earning pay in at least eight weeks of new employment totaling at least eight times the weekly benefit amount, and the maximum benefit is reduced.
Who handles this in Indiana: Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Indiana directory.
Discharge for just cause includes the following.
- Falsifying an application, or knowingly breaking a reasonable rule the employer uniformly enforces, attendance rules included.
- Willful damage to the employer's property, refusing to obey instructions, or endangering the safety of self or coworkers.
- Jail after a conviction, or a breach of a duty reasonably owed the employer in connection with the work.
No disqualification follows from these.
- Leaving for previously secured permanent full time work that the person then took.
- A medically substantiated disability, after reasonable efforts to keep the job.
- Leaving to enter the armed forces, or to follow a spouse who moved to another labor market.
- Leaving, or being discharged, because of circumstances directly caused by domestic or family violence.
Benefits begin after a waiting period of one week of unemployment for which nothing is paid. An administrative law judge's decision on a disputed claim becomes final unless appealed to the review board within fifteen days of notification or mailing.
Sources for this section (3)
- IC 22-4-15-1 — Grounds for disqualification; modifications
- IC 22-4-14-4 — Waiting period
- IC 22-4-17-3 — Administrative appeal; disputed claims
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Indiana attorney.