Policy and Systems

Benefits are not payable to you in the full amount if you are also receiving:

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Interviews

In order to establish your eligibility for benefits and to explain your rights and responsibilities in claiming benefits, you may be required to personally report to a Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) representative for an interview. The RRB representative will also answer any questions you may have about your benefits.

The RRB's authority for conducting such interviews is contained in the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Failure to report for an interview could result in a loss of benefits for 30 days if you do not have a good reason for failing to report.

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Requirements

To receive unemployment benefits you must:

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Eligibility

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Strike Benefits

If you are unemployed because of a strike, benefits are not payable for your first 14 days of unemployment due to the strike. If a strike is in violation of the Railway Labor Act or is not authorized by the national office of the striking labor organization, unemployment benefits are not payable to employees participating in the strike. However, employees not among those participating in an illegal strike, but who are unemployed because of the strike, may receive benefits after the first 2 weeks of the strike.

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Number of Days of Unemployment

After you have satisfied the benefit year waiting period requirement, benefits are generally paid for days of unemployment over 4 in 14-day claim periods.

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Daily Benefit Rate

Your daily benefit rate is 60% of the daily rate of pay for your last job in the base year, but not less than $12.70 a day nor more than 5% of the monthly compensation base.

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Accelerated Benefits

Under certain special provisions, if you have 10 or more years of service, you can receive benefits before the regular beginning date of a benefit year. In addition to having 10 or more years of service, you must be qualified for the next benefit year, but not the cur-rent year, and have 14 or more consecutive days of unemployment.

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Extended Benefits

If you have 10 or more years of service and exhaust your normal unemployment benefits, you may be eligible to receive extended benefits for up to 65 days (7 consecutive 14-day claim periods having 10 days payable in each). Also, if you are not qualified for benefits in the current benefit year, but received normal benefits in the previous year, you may still be eligible for extended benefits.

To qualify for extended benefits, you must not have voluntarily quit work without good cause or voluntarily retired.

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