Who qualifies for unemployment benefits in Texas?

You find out whether you are eligible about 4 weeks after you apply. Before you apply, TWC's Benefits Estimator can estimate your benefit amount, but it cannot tell you whether you qualify.

If you were laid off, fired, or quit

You must be unemployed, or working reduced hours, through no fault of your own. If you work for a school, your work stopped because of a strike or lockout, or you received severance pay, also read school breaks, strikes, and severance pay.

Laid off or working reduced hours

A layoff is due to lack of work, so you may be eligible. You may also be eligible if your employer reduced your hours or wages for a reason not related to misconduct. If you are still working, your reduced hours must not be the result of a disciplinary action or your own request.

Fired

TWC counts you as fired if your employer ended your job and it was not a layoff, or if your employer demanded your resignation. You may be eligible if you were fired for a reason other than misconduct. TWC's examples of misconduct that could make you ineligible include:

• Violating company policy
• Violating the law
• Neglecting or mismanaging your position
• Failing to do your work adequately when you are capable of doing it

Quit

Most people who quit their jobs do not receive unemployment benefits. If you quit for personal reasons, such as lack of transportation or staying home with your children, TWC cannot pay you.

You may still be eligible if you quit for good cause connected with the work. That means a work-related reason that would make someone who wants to stay employed leave the job. TWC's examples are well-documented instances of:

• Unsafe working conditions
• Significant changes to your hiring agreement
• Not getting paid, or having trouble getting your agreed-upon pay

You should be able to present evidence that you tried to correct the work-related problems before you quit.

A good reason not related to work can also qualify, in limited cases. TWC's examples include leaving work because:

• Your own illness or injury prevented you from working
• You are caring for a minor child who has a medical illness
• You are caring for a terminally ill spouse
• You have documented cases of sexual assault, family violence, or stalking
• You entered Commission-Approved Training and the job is not considered suitable
• You moved with your military spouse

Texas law adds conditions to the child and spouse reasons. A quit because of your minor child's medically verified illness prevents disqualification only if no reasonable alternative care was available for the child and your employer refused you a reasonable amount of time off during the illness. Leaving to care for your terminally ill spouse, shown by a physician's statement or other medical documentation, prevents disqualification only if no reasonable alternative care was available.

If you quit to move with your spouse and the move is not part of a qualifying military permanent change of station, you may be eligible, but you are disqualified for 6 to 25 weeks, depending on the situation. The benefits you have remaining are also reduced by your weekly benefit amount for each disqualified week.

If your employer disputes why you left

After you apply, TWC sends your last employer a letter with the reason you gave for no longer working there. By law, the employer has 14 days to respond. If the employer gives TWC new or different information, TWC contacts you for more information.

TWC decides each issue on your claim separately, such as the reason your job ended or an ongoing requirement, and sends you a Determination on Payment of Unemployment Benefits for each one. Most people get a determination about why their job ended. If you were laid off or are working reduced hours, you get one about your separation only if your employer contacts TWC to confirm it.

If a determination says TWC cannot pay you, you may appeal it and present your case at a telephone hearing. Denials, appeals, and overpayments covers the deadline, how to file, and the hearing.

Enough wages in your base period

Your base period is the first 4 of the last 5 completed calendar quarters before your claim's effective date, which is the Sunday of the week you apply. TWC skips the quarter you file in and the quarter before it. For claims filed through October 3, 2026, TWC's estimator bases benefits on wages from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026.

To have a payable claim, you must meet all of these requirements:

• You have wages in more than 1 of the 4 base period quarters.
• Your total wages for the base period are at least 37 times your weekly benefit amount.
• If you qualified for benefits on a prior claim, you have earned at least 6 times your new weekly benefit amount since then.

For example, say your wages in the 4 quarters of your base period were $10,000, $8,000, $7,000, and $5,000:

The wages fall in more than 1 quarter, and $30,000 is more than $14,800, so they pass. How much it pays shows how TWC works out the weekly benefit amount.

If a medically verifiable illness, injury, disability, or pregnancy kept you out of work for at least 7 weeks in a base period quarter, you may be able to use an alternate base period. It uses wages paid before the illness or injury. You must file your claim no later than 24 months after the illness, injury, disability, or pregnancy began. Call a Tele-Center at 800-939-6631 to ask whether you qualify for one.

Being able and available for work

To stay eligible, you must be totally or partially unemployed (working part time), and you must:

• Meet all work search requirements, unless TWC exempts you
• Request payment for weeks of unemployment when scheduled
• Be physically and mentally able to do the full-time work you are seeking
• Be available for full-time work
• Take part in reemployment activities as required
• Respond to requests from TWC or a Workforce Solutions office as instructed

If you receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), you may be eligible while able to work only part time and looking for part-time work, as how a disability affects unemployment benefits explains.

Being available means you are ready, willing, and able to accept any suitable full-time work. If you are incarcerated, you are not available for work. You must also:

• Have adequate transportation
• Have adequate child care arrangements, if you need them to work
• Be available for job interviews
• Be willing and able to work all the days and hours the type of work you are seeking requires
• Be willing to accept the usual rate of pay for a person with your qualifications and experience

For a suitable job, the pay you must be willing to accept depends on how long you have been unemployed:

TWC may disqualify you if you refuse a TWC or Workforce Solutions referral for a suitable job, refuse to apply for a suitable job, or refuse to accept one. Payment requests covers the work search rules.

School breaks, strikes, and severance pay

School workers on a scheduled break

If you have school wages in your base period, are on a scheduled break, and have a contract or reasonable assurance of a job after the break or in the next academic term, you generally do not qualify, because TWC cannot use your school wages to calculate your benefit amount. Reasonable assurance is a written or spoken commitment that you will have a job at your school or any other school. If you have enough wages from a job outside a school to qualify, TWC may be able to pay benefits based on those wages. If you get reasonable assurance or a school job after you apply, call a Tele-Center right away at 800-939-6631.

Strikes and lockouts

If you or your class of workers are financing, taking part in, or directly involved in a strike, TWC cannot pay you benefits during the strike. If your employer stops you from working through a lockout, where the workers want to work but the employer will not let them, you may be eligible. Working elsewhere does not end a labor dispute disqualification, which lasts until the dispute is settled and you report to work, or until you make an unconditional offer to return to work, even if that means crossing a picket line.

Severance pay

Texas law disqualifies you for any benefit period for which you are receiving or have received severance pay or wages in lieu of notice, which TWC describes as wages paid instead of advance notice of a layoff. For this rule, severance pay means money paid when your job ends, on top of your usual earnings from that employer. It does not include money paid under a release of claims or settlement agreement with your employer that is based on an alleged violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 or tied to a claim or legal action filed in connection with your job. Money paid under a written contract, including a union contract, negotiated before your job ended does not count either.