Unemployment backpay !

(New Jersey Unemployment Benefits)

Will I get backpay for my 7 week penalty?


Hello ,

My question is quite simple ... I've been searching all over the internet & I have not come up with a answer to my questions. I tried calling NJ UI office but like everyone else its KILLER trying to get through to an agent.

Anyway, I was fired in July for simple misconduct, I filed my claim 2 days later (its my first time claiming unemployment), about a week after that I got a letter in the mail telling me when to call in to claim my benefits but because of the simple misconduct stamp I needed to do a phone interview!

Long story short I did the phone interview and was disqualified for 7 weeks ... after my penalty period was over I re-opened my claim for the benefits and a couple weeks later I got my first check (I was told I can claim every week - which I have), my question is will I get backpay for my 7 week penalty?

During the the penalty weeks when I got the first letter that told me the date to call & claim I did but I stopped because of the disqualification letter that was sent later ... on my claim it tells me my claim date is the day I first claimed my benefits back in July so I assume those 7 weeks would be credited back to me ...?

I've been told I should get paid for those weeks I was penalized but I've been claiming for 3 weeks now & I still haven't received the backpay.


I know I'm rushing into this and expecting too much too soon but I just want to know if I should expect it or not . I would hate to get excited about receiving a lump some of money ... just to not receive it ! thank you for your time & answer to my question !





Hi, I have no idea when you're going to start receiving your benefits. I do not think you will receive any lump sum associated with the seven week disqaulification.

Any benefit year is just that .. a year. It's the period of time between your BYB and BYE dates.

A benefit year typically may entitle you for up to 26 weeks max of regular benefits.

A disqualification in NJ is the specified number of those 26 weeks (7 in your case) that they are not going to pay you anything .. NJ does not have a required unpaid waiting week .. so I'll skip explaining how that could delay payment in some states.

So no, I do not expect that you will receive a lump sum payment from any of those seven weeks you've been serving your disqualification.

However, when I visited the NJ unemployment website to review the DQ's for their new and excessive, three separate levels of misconduct, I could not find any reference that that 7 week DQ also cancels the credit weeks ..

Someone is going to have to let me know if they cancel the weeks permanently or just move them to the tail end of the remaining weeks of benefits.