If I Work in Ohio and Live in Indiana Where Do I File for Unemployment?

With workers telecommuting for their jobs or moving after layoffs, interstate unemployment claims are more common than most people assume. If you performed work in Ohio but live in Indiana, you must file an interstate unemployment clam with Ohio as your liable state and Indiana as your agent state. You file for unemployment benefits in Indiana but Ohio pays the benefits and determines your compensation amounts.

An interstate unemployment claim occurs when you live in one state but you completed your qualifying wages in another state. Qualifying wages are those you earned from work covered under that state’s unemployment compensation laws during your base period. Your base period is the first four of the last five complete calendar quarters before you filed your initial claim. If you completed your work in Ohio but live in Indiana, Ohio is the liable state and Indiana is the agent state.

In this scenario, you apply to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) for your benefits. Since your employment records aren’t in the Indiana tax records, you must have the contact information, the address and the salary information for each job you worked in the previous 18 months. You also must have your employment dates and the reasons you left each position. Indiana will contact Ohio with the information. Once Ohio verifies you meet its state-specific eligibility guidelines, it notifies Indiana, which in turn notifies you.

Once you received your approval, you have four weeks to sign up for Indiana’s work search program. While collecting your unemployment benefits, you must actively search for work and file a weekly claims certification for each week you want to collect benefits. Each week, you file a claim for the previous week of unemployment by logging into the website and answering questions about your eligibility for the week in question (see Resources).

Since your former employer paid into the Ohio state unemployment compensation fund, Ohio will fund your unemployment compensation. It also determines how much you’re eligible to receive. Ohio gives you 50 percent of your average weekly insured wage earnings during your base period. State laws limit your weekly benefit amount to no more than $387 as of 2011. You receive up to 26 weeks of payments, depending on how many weeks you earned insured wages in your base period.