Illinois unemployment pays between $51 and $628 a week in 2026 for a claimant with no dependents, with higher ceilings of $748 if you support a non-working spouse and $859 if you support a dependent child.1Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Table 1 of Weekly Benefit Amounts How much you personally get for unemployment in Illinois depends on what you earned in the roughly 15 months before you filed: the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) takes your two highest-earning quarters, adds them, multiplies by 47%, and divides by 26. That number is your weekly check, subject to the caps above and to a few deductions covered below.
The Formula, With a Worked Example
IDES looks at a “base period” — the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you file.2Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Unemployment Insurance Benefits Handbook File in March 2026 and the window runs from October 2024 through September 2025. Inside that window, IDES picks the two calendar quarters where you earned the most.
Add those two quarters together, multiply by 0.47, and divide by 26. That is your Weekly Benefit Amount.1Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Table 1 of Weekly Benefit Amounts
Say your two best quarters were $12,000 and $11,000. Added together that is $23,000. Multiply by 0.47 to get $10,810, then divide by 26. Your weekly benefit is about $416.
To qualify at all, you need at least $1,600 in total base-period wages, and at least $440 of that has to come from outside your single highest-earning quarter.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Benefit Rights Information for Claimants and Employers The second rule blocks claims built on one short burst of work.
The 2026 Maximum and Minimum
For benefit years starting on or after January 1, 2026, the top weekly payment for a claimant with no dependents is $628.1Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Table 1 of Weekly Benefit Amounts The cap equals 47% of the statewide average weekly wage, rounded up to the next whole dollar, and IDES resets it every year as average wages move.
The floor is $51. If the formula produces a smaller number but you still hit the minimum earnings thresholds, IDES pays $51. Below that, your claim is not valid.
Extra Money for a Dependent Spouse or Child
You can add a dependent allowance to your base benefit, but only for one dependent: a non-working spouse or a child, not both. A dependent spouse adds 9% of your Weekly Benefit Amount. A dependent child adds 17.2%.1Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Table 1 of Weekly Benefit Amounts
Those additions have their own 2026 ceilings: $748 a week with a dependent spouse and $859 with a dependent child. The spouse cap is 56% of the statewide average weekly wage; the child cap is 64.3%. If the child percentage would push you past $859, IDES trims it back to the cap.
What If Your Recent Wages Are Missing From the Base Period?
If you don’t meet the $1,600 threshold in the standard base period, IDES automatically checks an alternative base period made up of the four most recently completed calendar quarters before your benefit year starts.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Benefit Rights Information for Claimants and Employers This mostly helps people who started a new job recently, since the standard base period drops the most recent quarter of wages.
When the First Check Arrives, and How Long Benefits Last
Illinois has an unpaid waiting week: the first otherwise-eligible week of your claim pays nothing.3Illinois Department of Employment Security. Benefit Rights Information for Claimants and Employers You still have to certify for it and meet the eligibility rules. Between the waiting week and normal processing, expect roughly two to three weeks from filing to your first deposit.
You can collect up to 26 weeks of benefits inside a 52-week benefit year, which begins the Sunday of the week you file.2Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Unemployment Insurance Benefits Handbook The weeks don’t have to be consecutive. Take a short-term job and lose it again inside that year, and you can pick up your remaining weeks.
Your total payout for the year is capped at 26 times your weekly benefit, dependent allowance included. There is a second cap: if your total base-period wages were lower than that figure, they become the ceiling. A $500 weekly benefit points to $13,000 over 26 weeks, but if your base-period wages were only $11,000, benefits stop at $11,000.
What Can Reduce Your Weekly Check
Part-Time Earnings
Working part time doesn’t cancel your claim. Illinois lets you earn up to 50% of your Weekly Benefit Amount in a week with no reduction; anything above that threshold is subtracted dollar-for-dollar.4Illinois Department of Employment Security. Partial Benefits (Working Part Time) If your weekly benefit is $400 and you earn $150, you keep the full $400 (since $150 is under the $200 disregard). Earn $280, and IDES subtracts the $80 above the disregard, paying you $320 that week on top of your $280 in wages.
Pension Payments
An employer-funded pension reduces your check. If your former employer paid the full cost of the pension, IDES deducts 100% of the weekly pension equivalent from your unemployment benefit. If the employer paid only part of it, the deduction is 50%.2Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Unemployment Insurance Benefits Handbook Monthly pensions are converted to a weekly figure by dividing by 30 and multiplying by 7. Social Security is not counted.
Severance
Severance pay generally does not reduce or delay Illinois unemployment benefits, since the state treats it as compensation for past work rather than ongoing wages. The exception is if you keep performing work for the employer after your separation date, in which case payments can be reclassified as wages and cut into your benefit.
Taxes
Unemployment benefits are taxable at both the federal and state level. In January, IDES sends you a Form 1099-G showing what you were paid the year before, which you report on your return.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1099-G (Rev. December 2026) You can have taxes withheld from each payment at 10% for federal and 4.95% for Illinois.6Illinois Department of Revenue. Income Tax Rates Skip withholding and you’ll owe the full amount at tax time.
Child Support and Overpayments
If you owe past-due child support, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services can order IDES to withhold funds straight from your benefits.7Cornell Law School. Illinois Admin Code tit 56, 2815.105 – Deductions from Unemployment Benefits for Past Due Child Support IDES can also recover an overpayment from an earlier claim by reducing your current weekly checks until the balance clears.8Illinois Department of Employment Security. Overpayments
Put the pieces together and most Illinois claimants receive well under the $628 headline number, arrive at their first payment two to three weeks after filing, and stretch benefits over as many of the 26 weeks as they need inside the benefit year.