About this guide

This independent guide explains how unemployment benefits work in Texas and points you to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) pages, forms, and phone lines where you act on each rule.

What the guide covers

The guides cover how to apply, who qualifies, how much benefits pay, how long they last, how to request payments, appeals and overpayments, taxes on benefits, TWC offices and phone numbers, disability benefits, and finding a job. Questions and answers takes on the questions that cross several guides.

How the pages are checked

Every figure, deadline, and phone number in the guides, and every link to a government page, comes from an official source: TWC's own pages, Texas law, or another government office, such as the IRS or Social Security. Each guide links to its official sources at the bottom, with the date they were checked.

What the guide cannot do

This guide has no access to your TWC claim, so it cannot check a payment or change anything on your claim. For anything about your own claim, contact TWC in one of the ways on the Contact page.

It cannot decide whether you qualify. TWC makes that call issue by issue, in a Determination on Payment of Unemployment Benefits for each one, and you may appeal any determination that says TWC cannot pay you.

It cannot give legal advice. TWC's appeal process is designed so that you do not need an attorney, though you may hire an attorney or another person to represent you at your own expense.