Illinois Unemployment Benefits for deceased spouse
My wife was receiving unemployment benefits that exhausted and then the extended benefits were approved. She tried multiple times to contact IDES to re-apply and was never able to get thru. During all this she was very sick and passed on 2/28/21. She was entitled to ~$5,000 in benefits that were never received. I contacted IDES after she passed and was dismissed by the agent saying that I would not be eligible to claim her benefits after her death.
Is this correct?
What rights do I have?
What actions should I take?
Thank you in advance for considering my question.
Terry Says
I’m so sorry for your loss. But I do not think you — even as a representative of her estate — can claim benefits on her behalf. IDES is so messed up that it would be almost prohibitively time-consuming to even try.
