...
By Jenni Fink
Senior Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Unemployment insurance isn’t for parents who decide to leave their job to stay home with their child, but several states allow parents who can no longer work because of child care problems to potentially collect unemployment benefits.
After years of seeing a decline in women choosing to stay home to raise kids, America is seeing a rise in stay-at-home moms. Professional child care can cost thousands of dollars each month, and an annual survey from Motherly's State of Motherhood found nearly half all employed moms, and 50 percent of Millennials, considered leaving their jobs because the cost and stress of child care made their earnings not worth it anymore.
Every state has unemployment benefits but since they’re managed on a state-level basis and not a federal one, rules for collecting them and how much the benefit is worth vary on a state-by-state basis. The benefit is intended to help Americans who are out of work through no fault of their own, so quitting generally makes someone ineligible for benefits, but states do allow some people to collect benefits if they voluntarily leave their job.
Read More on News
Quitting a job for purely personal reasons can trigger a denial—unless the worker can show them quitting met the state’s "good cause" standard and that they remain eligible under ongoing requirements like being able and available to work. In some states, those "good cause" reasons include child care breakdowns.
Can You Collect Unemployment Benefits to Stay Home With a Child?
If a person wants to stay home with their child, they may be eligible for benefits, but it’s not automatic, even in states that recognize child care issues.
Many programs require that the claimant is still able to work, available for work, and actively seeking work, as well as meeting a recognized "good cause" for quitting. While trying to expand eligibility to include child care during the COVID-19 pandemic, New York State Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie noted that people who collect unemployment because of child care reasons need to demonstrate "reasonable effort" to find alternative care.
States Where Child Care Issues May Qualify for Unemployment Benefits
Washington: Washington passed a bill in 2024 that expanded the "good cause" definition to include child care issues. That includes parents who need to move to be closer to a minor child and need to quit their job, people whose work schedule changes by six hours, or have a care facility close.
"It isn’t fair to burden families and workers with an impossible choice between caring for their loved ones and potentially losing their livelihoods and more," Representative Mary Fosse, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said at the time. "As a state that prides itself on supporting working families, this is an important step in eliminating obstacles that so many in our workforce face when it comes to caring for children, family, and our most vulnerable."
Minnesota: Minnesota allows people to potentially collect unemployment benefits if they’ve had a "loss of child care" and made "reasonable efforts to find new child care" but couldn’t, so they had to quit their job.
New York: In 2021, New York expanded unemployment benefits eligibility to make "lack of child care" as a recognized reason to leave your job under the "good cause" requirement.
Massachusetts: A person could be eligible for unemployment benefits if they have a sudden change in child care arrangements that leaves them without someone to take care of their child while they’re working.
Illinois: In Illinois, a person may be eligible for unemployment benefits if their work schedule changes so much that they can no longer get child care under their current situation.
Oregon: Not having safe and appropriate child care in Oregon could constitute a "good cause" reason to leave your job and still get unemployment benefits.
What Counts as "Good Cause" for Quitting a Job
"Good cause" is a legal standard that varies by state, but national policy descriptions generally define it as a reasonable and compelling reason to leave work, as defined by state law. Workers who quit without good cause are typically disqualified from getting benefits.
For child care to count as good cause, a person may be required to prove a change in their situation that made their prior child care situation untenable. One of the most likely reasons a person would be eligible is through a change to their work schedule that was put into place by their employer.
In many states, they’ll ask for documentation to prove the circumstances of a person leaving their job and also that they are able to look for work, which may not be the case if a person has no child care.
How Long Benefits Can Last If Your Claim Is Approved
Since states control their unemployment benefits programs, duration of benefits depends on each individual states.
A recent Newsweek analysis of state level benefits found that in some states benefits can run out in as little as 12 weeks while others provide longer durations, up to 26 weeks. A bill moving through Congress would also require states to provide at least 26 weeks of benefits, but it hasn’t been passed or signed into law, yet.
Washington, Minnesota, New York, Illinois and Oregon offer 26 weeks of disability benefits to people who qualify. Massachusetts offers the longest benefit duration in the country at 30 weeks.
How Much Do Unemployment Benefits Pay
Just like duration is on a state-by-state basis, the amount a person receives is also dependent on where they live and how much money they earned in the qualifying period before applying for benefits. Washington offers the highest maximum weekly benefit at $1,152 per week, followed by Massachusetts, where people can receive up to $1,105 per week. Minnesota offers $914 per week, Oregon offers $872, New York offers up to $869 and Illinois offers up to $859.
If a claimant qualifies after quitting for child care reasons, that claimant’s maximum duration would still be determined by their state’s rules and the specifics of their claim—plus ongoing weekly eligibility requirements. States require claimants to certify their eligibility on a weekly or biweekly basis, including that a person is looking for work and attempting to get another job.
Ultimately, choosing to stay home with a child because a person would prefer to care for their child than work would preclude them from collecting unemployment benefits. However, if a person’s job schedule changes, they suddenly lose their child care or there’s another extenuating circumstance, a person may be eligible for unemployment benefits based on the state where they live.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines