Human Resource Blog

Unemployment/Disability Benefits

Is it possible for an employee who just qualified for disabilty under the Social Security program to file and collect unemployment benefits under IDES? Both occured simultaneously due to a recent medical condition.

An employee is probably not eligible to receive both Social Security disability payments and unemployment compensation in Illinois. IDES is the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or the office that handles unemployment in Illinois.

 

 

Under state regulations, a worker must be “able and available for work, and actively looking for work” in order to qualify for unemployment.

Under federal regulations, a former employee must be significantly disabled to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Usually this means unable to work.

According to the IDES handbook for workers “For each work day you are sick or otherwise unable to work, your benefit payment for that week will be reduced by one-fifth of your weekly benefit amount. If you are unable to work for five work days in a week, you will not receive any benefits for that week. If you become ill for an indefinite period, notify your local IDES office as soon as you are able to work.”

There could conceivably be exceptions, but usually an employee cannot be both unable to work and able to work at the same time.

At the very least, the employee would have to report his Social Security disability income to IDES. At the worst, this would be fraud and the employee would be subject to criminal charges. He would likely have to pay back any unemployment benefits that he received.

If you are the employer, the best bet would be to appeal the unemployment decision, or to report this employee to the IDES 888-337-7234 .