How do I file for unemployment in Louisiana?

Nothing is paid on a Louisiana claim until you have verified your identity, whichever way you file it. Everything after that runs through HiRE: your weekly claims, your documents, and your payment details.

How to file, and when

HiRE, which stands for Helping Individuals Reach Employment, is the Commission's self-service system, and it joins the unemployment claims system to the Louisiana Virtual One-Stop job system. Filing there is the fastest and easiest way to open a claim, and you can do it at any hour.

If you cannot get online, call the UI Call Center on 1-866-783-5567. The same toll-free number is the Easy Call System, which also takes weekly claims by phone; the old local Easy Call numbers were switched off.

The Sunday of the week you file starts your benefit year, and that year runs 12 months. You cannot file another new claim until it ends.

If you worked in another state

Whatever state your wages came from, and whatever state you live in now, you can file the claim at the American Job Center closest to home, and the staff there will help work out which state it should be filed against. Offices and phone numbers lists the centers by city.

What to have ready

• Your Social Security number.
• The name, address, and phone number of every employer you worked for in the last 18 months.
• The member-4 copy of your DD214 if you served in the military inside those 18 months.
• Your SF-8 and SF-50 if you worked for a federal employer inside those 18 months.

Do not delay filing if you cannot find your federal documents.

What your HiRE account does

One sign-in carries the whole claim. In HiRE you can file your weekly benefit requests, upload documents, check your claim status, ask for a redetermination, reopen a claim, update your address or your banking information, change your tax withholding, view your Form 1099-G, and send messages to the agency.

You also choose how you want to be paid when you file the claim: direct deposit, or a U.S. Bank debit card.

Filing again, and reopening an old claim

A claim that has gone inactive is reopened rather than started fresh. You reopen it in HiRE, then wait until Sunday to start filing weekly again. Weekly claims and work search explains what makes a claim go inactive in the first place.

A new claim is a different thing, and you cannot file one while your benefit year is still running. If your benefits run out before you find work, how long benefits last covers what is left.

What happens in the first weeks

A monetary determination comes back to you after you file. If anything on it is missing or wrong, ask for a redetermination; doing that in HiRE is the fastest way. How much it pays explains the figures on it.

Allow at least 21 days after your first weekly claim for a determination on your benefits. HiRE shows your claim status while that review goes on, and you should keep requesting payment each week in the meantime, in HiRE or on 1-866-783-5567.

The first week after your claim takes effect is usually your waiting week. You have to file a weekly claim for it, and you will not be paid for it.