But there are certain generalizations you can make. One of them is that you need to check on unemployment issues for yourself, not take the word of your employer blindly. Because either way, it's your own personal responsibility to tend to your own business, and employers do not always tell exactly the truth, or they may be confused about the program.
Another is that if you are currently classified as disabled, and are receiving disabiity insurance of some kind, you cannot receive unemployment benefits during that time, because by definition, unemployment is for those who are out of work through no fault of their own and are able, available and actively seeking work.
Unemployment should be filed as soon as you are out of work through no fault of your own. This will set up a claim for you which will be in place for one year from the date of filing. It will be based on the previous so many quarters back from the date filed, the wages this individual has in the base period of the claim. It is not based on how long the person has worked throughout their work history.
As soon as you no longer are classified as disabled, or are released by a physician as able and available to work, you can begin drawing the unemployment benefits. If you set up your claim as soon as you were laid off, it will be there for a year. At the end of the year, the claim will expire, and there will be no more money to draw from that claim (regardless of whether you have gotten the whole number of weeks or not).There is a standard number of weeks, maxing out at about 26 weeks, (about six months) of regular unemployment you can draw in a benefit year, at a fixed amount depending on your earnings and what state you are in.
Up till the end of this month, there have also federal extensions in place which provided more weeks of unemployment benefits after your six months was up. These may or may not be extended by congress. If not, then six months of unemployment in any claim year will be the most anyone can receive in any state. So they were already wrong when they told her she could draw unemployment for a year. If there are no extensions, her unemployment will be over after six months or less. If she drew disability for a few months, and then was released, she'd have till the end of the benefit year to get the unemployment.
