You May Be Able To Collect Unemployment If Domestic Violence Led To Your Job Loss

If you've been a victim of domestic violence and it has cost you your job, you may be able to collect unemployment benefits. Here's what you should know.

When And Where You Can Collect

Not every state follows the same rules, but over 30 jurisdictions now have laws that allow you to collect unemployment if:

• you were fired due to some circumstance that resulted from domestic violence, or
• you had to quit your job because of a domestic violence situation.

What You Have To Prove

What you have to prove in order to qualify for benefits varies widely, but in general you have to show:

• documentation that you were a victim of domestic violence, and 
• a connection between the abuse and the loss of your job (whether you were fired or quit).

Documentation of abuse, in most jurisdictions, can include things like records from the police, reports by social workers and therapists, records of a stay in a victim's shelter, or the sworn certification of any attorney that you may have consulted in the pursuit of a divorce or restraining order.

It can be a little bit harder to prove the relationship between your actual job loss and the domestic violence that you suffered, however. Sometimes the connection between the domestic violence and the loss of a job, or decision to leave one, isn't always obvious, direct, or even the sole factor involved.

How To Connect The Abuse With The Job Loss

The critical question is whether or not the abuse was a "substantial factor" that led to the job loss.

For example, you could be fired for violating company rules if you work in a restaurant and your abusive partner intimidates you into giving him or her free meals. Breaking the company rules would be the direct cause of your firing. However, your partner's coercion (and your possible fear of a violent outburst if you refused to comply) was the reason you broke the rules. The abusive coercion would then be a substantial factor underlying your job loss.

In another situation, you could be faced with decisions that make it impossible for you to stay in your current job and still escape the abuse. For example, you may decide that the only way to avoid the abuse is to move out of state, far away from your abuser. While your decision to leave may also include other factors (like moving in with relatives during a period of financial recovery from a divorce), your desire to escape the abusive situation would be one critical motivation. As a result, that should entitle you to unemployment benefits.

The ability to collect unemployment after the loss of a job due to domestic violence is important, given that as many as 74% of victims are harassed at work. If your state allows such claims, but you've been denied for lack of proof or an inability to show that the abuse and the job loss are connected, consult an attorney to help you with an appeal or with unemployment hearings. These important benefits can help you on your road to recovery.