Ongoing Eligibility Requirements for Receiving Unemployment Benefits

You must:

• Register for work in the state where you reside
• Search for work
• Document your work search activities
• Apply for and accept suitable full-time work

To learn more about your work search requirements, go to the Work Search Requirements for Unemployment Benefits page.

For help finding your next job, please visit www.WorkInTexas.com and use the virtual and in person services at local Workforce Solutions offices throughout the state. For additional tips, visit: https://twc.texas.gov/jobseekers/job-search

Work Search Activities

You must complete a designated number of work searches based on your local county to continue to receive benefits.

For more information, visit: Required Number of Work Search Activities by County

Suitable Work

To continue to be eligible for unemployment benefits, you must apply for and be able to accept a suitable full-time job. TWC determines if a job is suitable based on:

• Your experience, qualifications, and training
• The working conditions and pay for similar work in your area
• Any risks to your health, safety, or morals
• The distance to work from your home and local commuting patterns
• How long you have been unemployed

During your first eight weeks of unemployment, you must be willing to accept a suitable job that pays at least 90 percent of your normal wage. After you have been unemployed for eight weeks, you must be willing to accept a suitable job that pays at least 75 percent of your normal wage.

When you apply for a job, you should not ask for a wage that is higher that what most other people earn for that type of job in your area. To explore career opportunities and compare wages by occupation and local area, visit: https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Wages/compare-salaries.aspx  

If you do not apply for suitable work, accept suitable work, or return to your regular self-employment work, TWC may disqualify you for benefits. You have the right to appeal any denial. For additional appeal information, visit the Introduction to the Unemployment Benefits Appeal Process page.

You may refuse to return to work or refuse to accept an offer of suitable work if you have good cause. TWC determines you have good cause to refuse work if:

• The work poses a risk to your health, safety, or morals
• The work is vacant directly because of a strike, lockout, or other labor dispute
• The wages, hours, or other conditions of the work are substantially less favorable than similar work in your area
• The work requires you to join a company union 
• The work requires you to resign from a labor organization

You must be able to perform full-time work to be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Being able to work means that you are physically and mentally able to perform the work you are seeking. You must have the health, endurance, and other physical and mental requirements necessary to perform suitable full-time work for which you are qualified or can readily learn to perform, and which exists in your job search area.

Social Security Disability Insurance

Tell us if you apply for or receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. If you are on SSDI, able to work part time, and seeking part-time work, you may be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. If you are applying for SSDI and are not able to work full time, you may not be eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

If we identify you as someone likely to exhaust unemployment benefits, we will require you to participate in reemployment services. If you need to participate, staff from your local Workforce Solutions office will contact you.

If you do not participate in reemployment services as required, your benefit payments will be delayed or denied.

If you have another job separation after you apply for benefits, you must be unemployed through no fault of your own to be eligible for benefit payments.

We investigate each job separation to determine whether you can continue to receive benefits, which may cause a delay or denial of payment, and mail you a Determination on Payment of Unemployment Benefits.

• If you separate from another job while you are requesting unemployment benefit payments, you must tell us when you request payment.
• If you stop requesting unemployment benefits and then resume at any time during your benefit year, you must tell us if you had a job separation during that time period.

• Work Search Requirements for Unemployment Benefits
• Request Benefit Payments
• Unemployment Benefits Fraud