Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
An Official Pennsylvania Government Website
Translate
Begin Main Content Area

Content Editor ‭[2]‬

Partial Benefit Credit: Working Part-time

You may work part-time and possibly receive an unemployment benefit for the week. Payment amount is determined using your “partial benefit credit,” (PBC) which is 30% of your weekly benefit rate (WBR). Your WBR and your PBC are added together, and then any earnings you report are subtracted from that total. You are paid the difference, but you cannot be paid more than your weekly benefit rate for any week.
 
You can use this calculator to estimate your payment for the week:

Page Viewer
This is an estimate and does not include reductions based on your situation, including federal tax withholding, state benefit reduction, overpayment deduction, child support, etc.
 
If your payment for the week is zero, it means you are not eligible to receive a benefit for the week because you had excessive earnings, meaning you are not considered unemployed that week.  You will not receive a determination for each week when you work too much because earnings calculations are explained to you on page 2 of the financial determination and page 12 of the UCP-1 handbook. If you have excessive earnings and wish to claim benefits for any future week, you will need to reopen your claim, first.

To find your WBR and PBC on your UC monetary determination, look in the middle of the page:
Monetary-Determination.png
(click to expand)

To properly report earnings:
  • The unemployment program processes all weeks as Sunday through Saturday.  Do not use any other combination of days to calculate your earnings.  The days your employer includes in your paychecks or which day they typically pay you is not relevant for unemployment purposes.  You must use your own calendar to track the work you do from Sunday through Saturday each week.  
  • Earnings are to be reported in the week they are earned and not the week they are paid.  Do not wait to receive paystubs to report the amounts on your claim. You must use your own calendar to track the work you do from Sunday through Saturday and calculate on your own the earnings you had for the week.
  • Earnings from traditional employment must be reported in the gross amount each week, rounded up to the nearest dollar.  This is generally the number of hours worked, times hourly rate of pay (Hours x Pay) before taxes.
  • Earnings from self-employment must be reported in the net amount each week, rounded up to the nearest dollar.  This would be the amount of pay you will receive for the work that week after your expenses are deducted.