Can someone attend school full-time and still get unemployment in Illinois?

July 30, 2009 4:18 PM

Is it legal to draw unemployment benefits in Illinois while attending college as a full-time student?

I'm asking this for my mom. She was laid off a few months ago and has been drawing unemployment while looking for work. The economy being what it has, she hasn't had much luck, and is considering going back to college. She wants to go full-time, though, and I'm not having much luck googling an answer about whether or not she'll be able to keep drawing unemployment (while still looking for work!) if she goes back to school. The Illinois unemployment website isn't very helpful, and when I search I keep getting a bunch of yahoo-answers like sites.

Thanks for your help.

posted by sugarfish to Work & Money (5 answers total)

IANAL, but usually the granting of unemployment benefits depends on being ready & able to work each day (unless they are specifically for disability of course). If she's in school she is not ready & available to work and there fore I would assume ineligible.
posted by Billegible at 4:33 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: But if she takes classes, or a job, at night, wouldn't that mean she's eligible for work? This is where I keep getting hung up.
posted by sugarfish at 4:36 PM on July 30, 2009

Response by poster: I mean, if she has classes during the day but was willing to work in the evening.
posted by sugarfish at 4:36 PM on July 30, 2009

I'm in Wisconsin, not Illinois, so our rules might be different, but your mom should check out a provider of the WIA program. (see here) In Wisconsin, this program can help people like your mom with training (and potentially training/tuition costs, depending on what she's going into) and get a "Work Search Waiver" which means someone can collect unemployment while in school.
posted by mjcon at 4:41 PM on July 30, 2009

I'm in another state, but NY also has a program where you can go to school and continue to collect unemployment. You have to apply to be accepted and then file your regular claims as usual. Call and they will tell you if such a program exists.
posted by bedhead at 6:02 PM on July 30, 2009