What Disqualifies You from Unemployment in Connecticut?

In Connecticut, you can be denied unemployment benefits for a handful of reasons: quitting without good cause tied to your employer, being fired for willful misconduct, failing a required drug or alcohol test, turning down suitable work, being out because of a labor dispute, not staying available for and actively searching for work, not having enough wages in your base period, or committing fraud on your claim. Certain kinds of income, such as severance and some pensions, can also reduce or wipe out your weekly payment. Here is what disqualifies you from unemployment in Connecticut, and what the exceptions look like.

Quitting Your Job

Walking away from a job is the most common way people lose eligibility. Connecticut pays benefits only if you left “for good cause attributable to the employer,” meaning circumstances serious enough that a reasonable person in your shoes would have quit. Genuinely unsafe conditions, a major unilateral change to your pay or duties, or a hostile work environment your employer refused to address despite complaints can meet that bar. Unhappiness with the job, a desire to change careers, or personal reasons unrelated to work will not.¹

Some situations that look like quitting are not treated as quitting. If your employer told you a layoff was coming and let you leave early, or told you to resign or be fired, Connecticut treats the separation as involuntary.¹

There is also a specific protection if you left work to escape domestic violence directed at you, your child, your spouse, or your parent. You will need supporting evidence such as police records, court documents, or statements from shelter workers or medical professionals, and you must show you made reasonable efforts to keep the job before leaving.²

Being Fired for Willful Misconduct

Not every firing disqualifies you. The trigger is “willful misconduct,” meaning serious, deliberate behavior that harms your employer’s interests. Theft, repeated insubordination, and criminal conduct tied to the job are typical examples. A single minor lapse, like one instance of tardiness, usually is not enough, and the employer carries the burden of proving the misconduct.³

When misconduct is established, the disqualification is not permanent, but it is severe. You cannot draw benefits again until you return to work and earn at least ten times your weekly benefit rate at a new job.³

Failing a Required Drug or Alcohol Test

A positive result on a drug or alcohol test required by state or federal law carries the same consequence as willful misconduct: no benefits until you earn ten times your weekly rate at a new job. This mainly hits workers in safety-sensitive transportation roles, such as trucking, aviation, railroads, and mass transit, where testing is federally mandated. Connecticut also requires testing for commercial motor vehicle drivers in intrastate commerce.⁴

Refusing Suitable Work

If CTDOL or an employer directs you to available, suitable work and you turn it down without a good reason, you are ineligible until you return to work and earn at least six times your weekly benefit rate.³

“Suitable” takes account of your skills, experience, prior wage level, the length of your unemployment, and local labor market conditions. The longer you have been out of work, the wider the definition becomes; a job that was not suitable in week two might be suitable in week twenty. A documented health risk or an unreasonable commute can qualify as a legitimate reason for refusing.

Labor Disputes and Strikes

Workers who are out because of a strike or other labor dispute generally cannot collect benefits while the dispute is ongoing. Two exceptions apply. You may qualify if you are not participating in, financing, or directly interested in the dispute and you do not belong to the group involved. You may also qualify if you are out because of a lockout in which your employer shut down or offered only worse terms than your previous contract, provided your union has told the employer that workers are willing to keep working under the old terms while negotiating.⁵

Not Being Available and Actively Searching

Even if you qualified when you filed, you can lose benefits week by week if you stop meeting the ongoing rules. Every week you certify, you must complete at least three work search activities, and one of them must be a direct employer contact, meaning you actually communicate with an employer about a full-time job. The other two can include attending job fairs, visiting an American Job Center, creating a résumé on CTHires, or building a profile on a professional networking site.⁶

You also have to be physically and mentally able to work. If a medical condition limits you to part-time work, CTDOL may approve a modified search after reviewing documentation, but you still have to look for jobs within your capacity.⁷

Full-time students face extra scrutiny. You can collect while enrolled only if you stay available for and actively seek full-time work that does not conflict with your classes, and you were both a full-time student and full-time employee at some point during the two years before becoming unemployed. Students in training programs approved by the Labor Commissioner may qualify a different way. If you quit a job specifically to attend school, you are ineligible as long as you are enrolled.⁸

Not Enough Wages in Your Base Period

The other way to fail eligibility has nothing to do with why you left. It has to do with what you earned. Connecticut uses a “base period,” the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you file. Your total base period wages must equal at least 40 times your weekly benefit rate. Because the 2026 minimum weekly benefit is $44, the absolute floor is $1,760 in base period earnings, and the threshold rises with your calculated rate. Someone with a $153 weekly rate would need at least $6,120.⁹

If your standard base period does not contain enough wages, CTDOL may use an alternative base period covering more recent quarters. That can pull in earnings from just before you filed and rescue an otherwise short claim.

The program is also not available to workers who are fully self-employed, since self-employment does not generate the covered wages the system runs on.¹⁰

Income That Cuts Into or Eliminates Your Benefit

Some income does not disqualify you outright but reduces the check, sometimes to zero. Severance pay or wages in lieu of notice can offset your weekly benefit. CTDOL may hold a hearing to figure out whether a specific severance package actually offsets, weighing factors like whether you had to sign a release of claims to receive it and your employer’s vacation policy. Not every severance triggers a reduction, so do not assume you are ineligible just because you got one.¹¹

A pension from a base period employer generally reduces your weekly benefit by the prorated weekly pension amount. The offset shrinks proportionally to what you personally contributed; if you funded half the pension, the offset is cut in half. Social Security is treated as fully employee-funded, which effectively eliminates the offset for Social Security recipients. Pensions from employers who did not employ you during your base period do not reduce your benefit at all.¹²

Side income from self-employment reduces your benefit by two-thirds of what you earn. Report every dollar accurately on your weekly certification.¹³

Fraud on Your Claim

Knowingly making a false statement, hiding a material fact, or failing to report earnings to inflate your benefits will disqualify you and cost more on top. You must repay the entire overpayment, plus a penalty of 50% of the overpayment for a first offense. You also forfeit benefits for one to 39 weeks during which you would otherwise have been eligible, and that forfeiture is not limited to the current benefit year. Serious cases can bring criminal charges.¹⁴

CTDOL cross-matches claimant records with employer wage reports and other databases, so unreported part-time earnings tend to surface. Even honest mistakes on a weekly certification can create an overpayment you have to pay back. Report every change in your employment status and earnings the same week it happens.

If You Have Been Denied

A denial letter is not the last word. You have 21 calendar days from the mailing date of the decision to appeal to an Appeals Referee. You can file online through the Board of Review portal, visit an Appeals Division office in Middletown or Waterbury, go to an American Job Center, or mail a written letter to the Appeals Division in Wethersfield. Miss the deadline and the Referee can only hear your case if you show good cause for the late filing.¹⁵¹⁶

Bring documentation to the hearing: pay stubs, emails, written warnings or the absence of any, witness statements, and anything else that speaks to why you left or were let go. Many denials turn on facts the employer put in its notice that the claimant can rebut with a paper trail.

1
Legal Information Institute. Connecticut Agencies Regulations 31-236-18 – Voluntary Leaving Defined
2
Connecticut eRegulations. Connecticut Agencies Regulations 31-236-23a – Voluntary Leaving to Escape Domestic Violence
3
Justia. Connecticut General Statutes 31-236 – Disqualifications, Exceptions
4
Connecticut General Assembly. Public Act Summary for 95-323
5
CT Department of Labor. Can I Receive Unemployment if I’m Unemployed Because of a Labor Dispute
6
CT.gov. Work Search
7
State of Connecticut. Frequently Asked Questions About the Work Search Requirement
8
CT Department of Labor. Can I Receive Unemployment if I Attend a School, College, or University
9
Connecticut Department of Labor. Guide to Unemployment Insurance 2025
10
CT.gov. Can I Receive Unemployment if I Was Fired or Suspended
11
CT.gov. Why Were My Weekly Benefits Denied or Reduced
12
Connecticut General Assembly. Unemployment Compensation Offsets
13
CT Department of Labor. Can I Receive Unemployment if I Am Self-Employed
14
Justia. Connecticut General Statutes 31-273 – Overpayments, Recovery and Penalties
15
CT.gov. How Do I Appeal an Unemployment Benefits Decision
16
State of Connecticut. Filing a Claimant Appeal