Kansas Unemployment Benefits 2026: Up to $663 a Week, How to File

Kansas pays a maximum of $663 a week and a minimum of $165 a week on initial unemployment claims filed from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, according to the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL). The figures reset each July 1, and a claim keeps the maximum and minimum that were in effect when its benefit year began (K.S.A. 44-704(c), (d)).

How long benefits last depends on Kansas's unemployment rate when your benefit year starts: 16, 20 or 26 weeks under K.S.A. 44-704(j). KDOL's May 2026 claimant handbook uses 16 weeks as the current maximum. KDOL runs the program and takes claims online at KansasUI.gov.

This page covers Kansas's own rules. For how the federal-state system works and how Kansas compares, see our guide to unemployment benefits by state.

Information last verified on October 6, 2026. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This page covers regular state unemployment insurance in Kansas under the Kansas Employment Security Law, K.S.A. chapter 44, article 7. It does not cover federal programs for federal workers and veterans (UCFE/UCX), Disaster Unemployment Assistance, extended benefits, or claims filed in other states.

Who is eligible for unemployment in Kansas

To get benefits you need enough recent wages, a separation that does not disqualify you, and you must stay able to work, available for work and actively looking each week. KDOL decides each of these.

Kansas measures your wages over a base period: the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your benefit year begins (K.S.A. 44-703(b)). Your benefit year starts on the Sunday of the week you file a valid claim and runs for one year.

The earnings test in K.S.A. 44-705(e) has two parts. You must have been paid base-period wages of "not less than 30 times the claimant's weekly benefit amount," and you must have wages in more than one quarter of the base period. KDOL's eligibility page puts the second part as having "at least two quarters of wages in the base period."

Kansas has no general alternate base period for people who fall short under the regular one. The statute provides an alternative base period (the last four completed quarters before the injury) only for someone returning to work after a qualifying injury who files within four weeks of release and within 24 months of the injury (K.S.A. 44-703(b), 44-705(g)). If an on-the-job injury is part of your story, see our guide to Kansas workers' compensation laws, which is a separate program.

How much unemployment pays in Kansas

Your weekly benefit amount is 4.25% of the wages you were paid in the highest-paid quarter of your base period (K.S.A. 44-704(b)). KDOL rounds the result down to the next whole dollar, then raises it to the minimum or cuts it to the maximum.

For initial claims filed July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, those limits are $663 and $165 (KDOL). Claims filed from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 used a $637 maximum and a $159 minimum, as published in the Kansas Register.

The maximum is set by formula: 55% of the statewide average weekly wage in insured work for the previous calendar year. The minimum is 25% of the maximum. Kansas does not add an allowance for dependents.

Here is how the formula works. If your best base-period quarter paid $10,000, your weekly benefit would be 4.25% of $10,000, which is $425. To pass the earnings test with that benefit, your total base-period wages would need to be at least $12,750 (30 times $425), spread over more than one quarter. You can estimate your amount with our Kansas unemployment calculator.

How long unemployment lasts in Kansas

The number of weeks depends on the three-month seasonally adjusted Kansas unemployment rate at the beginning of your benefit year (K.S.A. 44-704(j)(1)):

KDOL's current claimant handbook (May 2026) uses 16 weeks as "the current maximum number of weeks." Your Decision on Benefit Amount notice shows the total you can receive.

Your total benefits are also capped. Under K.S.A. 44-704(g) and (j), the most you can receive in a benefit year is the lesser of your weekly benefit times your maximum number of weeks (16 under KDOL's current handbook) or one-third of your base-period wages. Someone with uneven or short work history can run out before reaching the week limit.

The waiting week

In most cases your first eligible week is an unpaid waiting week (KDOL eligibility page). It is usually the first week you file a weekly certification, and you must certify for it and be otherwise eligible for it to count.

Kansas does not pay the waiting week back later. An older rule that paid it after three consecutive weeks of unemployment no longer applies to initial claims effective on or after April 1, 2021 (K.S.A. 44-705(d)).

The waiting week does not apply if your employer terminated its operations in Kansas, declared bankruptcy, or began a workforce reduction under the federal WARN Act.

Quitting and being fired

Kansas is an at-will employment state, but how your job ended still decides whether you can collect.

If you quit

You are disqualified if you left work voluntarily "without good cause attributable to the work or the employer" (K.S.A. 44-706(a)). Good cause means a reason serious enough that it would push a reasonable person, acting in good faith and wanting to keep working, to leave. Not returning after approved leave counts as a voluntary quit.

The statute lists situations that do not disqualify you, including:

• Leaving because of illness or injury on a health care provider's advice, with prompt notice to the employer, when your regular or comparable work is not available when you are able to return.
• Leaving temporary work to return to your regular employer.
• Following a military spouse whose transfer makes it unreasonable to keep the job.
• Hazardous working conditions.
• Leaving to enter training under the Trade Act.
• Unwelcome harassment that the employer knew about.
• Leaving to accept better work.
• Being instructed to violate an ordinance or statute.
• A substantial violation of the work agreement by the employer, after you tried the available remedies.
• A personal emergency of compelling urgency, after reasonable efforts to keep the job.
• Domestic violence, shown by proof such as a restraining order, a police or conviction record, a medical record, a professional's statement, or a sworn statement.

A disqualification for quitting starts the day after you leave and lasts until you are reemployed and have earned at least three times your weekly benefit amount in insured work.

If you were fired

Kansas defines misconduct as violating a duty or obligation reasonably owed to the employer as a condition of employment (K.S.A. 44-706(b)). Breaking a company rule counts only if you knew or should have known about it and the rule was lawful, job-related, and fairly and consistently enforced. For attendance, the absence or lateness must be unexcused, you must have known the expectation, and the employer must have warned you.

A misconduct discharge disqualifies you until you are reemployed and earn at least three times your weekly benefit. Gross misconduct, meaning extreme, willful or wanton misconduct such as theft, fraud, intentional damage or injury, or a felony, carries a longer penalty: you must earn at least eight times your weekly benefit, and the wage credits from that job are cancelled.

Being let go because you could not do the job well, despite good-faith effort, is not misconduct under K.S.A. 44-706(b)(4). Whatever the reason, Kansas law on final paychecks governs what your employer owes you on your way out.

Work search requirements

Each benefit week, KDOL requires you to submit at least one application or resume to a potential employer and complete two other job-seeking activities (KDOL eligibility page).

Under K.S.A. 44-705, the work search can be adjusted for people in approved training (including Trade Act training), and for people looking only for part-time work who are available for hours comparable to their base-period part-time job. If KDOL selects you for reemployment services, you must take part to keep receiving benefits.

Turning down suitable work can cost you benefits. Employers can report job refusals and missed interviews to KDOL, and one factor in whether a job is suitable is whether it pays at least your maximum weekly benefit amount.

Working part-time while on unemployment

You can work part of a week and still collect a reduced benefit. Under K.S.A. 44-704(f), KDOL subtracts the part of your weekly earnings that is more than 25% of your weekly benefit amount, and rounds the result down to the dollar.

Using the $425 example: 25% of $425 is $106.25. If you earn $200 in a week, the $93.75 above that line is subtracted, leaving about $331 for the week. Once your earnings reach 125% of your weekly benefit, nothing is payable that week.

Vacation or holiday pay for a week you claim, and severance paid on a schedule, count as wages. Pay in lieu of notice under the WARN Act and Social Security benefits do not.

How to apply and file weekly certifications

File your claim online at KansasUI.gov, or start from KDOL's apply for benefits page. KDOL's Unemployment Contact Center is at 785-575-1460 locally or 1-800-292-6333 toll-free.

File a weekly certification every week, starting on the first Sunday after you submit your application (KDOL). Each benefit week runs Sunday through Saturday. You can certify online or through the automated phone line.

Do not let a week lapse. If you do not file a certification within 14 days, it can no longer be filed, your claim goes inactive, and you have to submit a new application. KDOL does not pay a week until the certification for it is filed.

Denials and appeals

You have 16 calendar days after a decision is mailed (or delivered, if it was not mailed) to appeal it (K.S.A. 44-709). If the last day falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. A late appeal can be accepted only for excusable neglect, so do not rely on that.

There are three levels of review:

1. Appeals Referee. KDOL's Office of Appeals holds a telephone hearing. The office is at 401 SW Topeka Blvd, Topeka, KS 66603-3182; phone 785-296-1800, fax 785-291-6086.
2. Employment Security Board of Review. Appeal the referee's decision within 16 calendar days of its mailing.
3. District court. Petition for review under the Kansas Judicial Review Act within 16 calendar days of the mailing of the Board's decision.

KDOL's appeals page is direct about one point: "If you file an appeal, you must continue to file your weekly certifications each week you remain unemployed or underemployed." If you win, those are the weeks you can be paid for.

Overpayments

If you received benefits you were not entitled to, KDOL can deduct the overpayment from future benefits or require you to repay it (K.S.A. 44-719(d)). It can also intercept federal payments through the Treasury offset program.

Unpaid overpayments bear interest at 1.5% per month. For fraud, interest runs from the final determination. For non-fraud overpayments, interest applies only to balances still unpaid two years after the final determination.

The statute allows the secretary to waive collection after five years when the overpayment was not caused by fraud, misrepresentation or willful nondisclosure and collecting it would be against equity or cause extreme hardship. A non-fraud overpayment can also be waived at any time if you met all eligibility requirements during the weeks you were overpaid.

Making a false statement or knowingly hiding a fact to get benefits is treated as theft under K.S.A. 21-5801, and the identity-impersonation pattern described in K.S.A. 44-719(a)(2) is a felony.

Does Kansas tax unemployment benefits?

Yes. KDOL says unemployment benefits "are subject to both federal and state income taxes" (KDOL). You can elect to have 3.5% of each weekly payment withheld for Kansas income tax and 10% for federal tax, through your KansasUI.gov portal or when you file your claim (KDOL claimant handbook). For the federal side, see our unemployment benefits by state guide.

Recent and pending changes

• July 1, 2026: the maximum rose from $637 to $663 and the minimum from $159 to $165 for new claims.
• House Bill 2764 (2026 session): this bill would have amended several sections of the Employment Security Law, including the benefit, eligibility, disqualification and appeal sections cited on this page. It was heard in the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee on February 11, 2026 and died in committee on April 10, 2026 (Kansas Legislature). It did not become law.

Common myths

• "Kansas pays 26 weeks." Only when the unemployment rate is 6% or higher at the start of your benefit year. Otherwise it is 16 or 20 weeks, and one-third of your base-period wages can cap you sooner.
• "The waiting week gets paid back after three weeks." Not for claims effective on or after April 1, 2021.
• "The maximum is $637." That was the maximum for claims filed July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. For claims filed from July 1, 2026 it is $663.

Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about Kansas unemployment insurance, verified on October 6, 2026. It is not legal advice and not a benefit determination. Only the Kansas Department of Labor decides whether you are eligible and how much you receive. If your claim is denied, consider talking with a lawyer licensed in Kansas or a legal aid office.

Related

• Unemployment benefits by state
• Kansas unemployment calculator
• Kansas at-will employment laws
• Kansas final paycheck laws
• Kansas workers' compensation laws

Last updated: October 7, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the maximum unemployment benefit in Kansas?

$663 a week for initial claims filed July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, according to KDOL. If your claim started before July 1, 2026, the maximum in effect then ($637) still applies to that benefit year.

What is the minimum weekly unemployment payment in Kansas?

$165 a week for claims filed July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. By statute the minimum is 25% of the maximum in effect when your benefit year begins (K.S.A. 44-704(d)).

How is my Kansas unemployment amount calculated?

KDOL takes 4.25% of your wages in the highest-paid quarter of your base period and rounds down to the dollar, then raises it to the $165 minimum or cuts it to the $663 maximum for current claims (K.S.A. 44-704(b)).

How many weeks of unemployment can I get in Kansas?

16, 20 or 26 weeks, depending on whether the state's three-month average unemployment rate was under 5%, from 5% to under 6%, or 6% or higher when your benefit year began (K.S.A. 44-704(j)). KDOL's May 2026 handbook uses 16 weeks as the current maximum. One-third of your base-period wages can cap the total sooner.

Does Kansas pay the waiting week back?

No, not for initial claims effective on or after April 1, 2021. The waiting week is waived only when the employer ended Kansas operations, declared bankruptcy, or began a WARN Act workforce reduction (K.S.A. 44-705(d)).

Can I collect unemployment in Kansas if I quit my job?

Only if you left for good cause attributable to the work or the employer, or one of the exceptions in K.S.A. 44-706(a) applies, such as hazardous working conditions or leaving to accept better work. Otherwise you are disqualified until you work again and earn at least three times your weekly benefit.

How much can I earn and still get partial unemployment in Kansas?

Earnings up to 25% of your weekly benefit do not reduce your payment. Every dollar above that is subtracted, and the result is rounded down (K.S.A. 44-704(f)).

How do I appeal a Kansas unemployment denial?

Send a written appeal within 16 calendar days after the decision was mailed. An Appeals Referee holds a telephone hearing, and further appeals go to the Employment Security Board of Review and then to district court, each with its own 16-day deadline (K.S.A. 44-709).

Is Kansas unemployment taxable?

Yes. KDOL says benefits are taxable for federal and Kansas income tax. You can choose 3.5% Kansas withholding and 10% federal withholding in your KansasUI.gov portal or when you file.