Unemployment Insurance Agency to Implement Increased Benefit Amount and Weeks On April 2nd
March 28, 2025
Last December, Michigan’s legislature approved measures to increase Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, despite the concerns of SBAM and members of the business community.
The following changes were signed into law last year:
- Increase the maximum number of weeks an individual can qualify for unemployment benefits per year from 20 weeks to 26 weeks
- Implement scheduled increases for both the maximum weekly benefit rate, and also the rate for each dependent.
| Date (Filed on or after) | Maximum Weekly Benefit Amount | Dependent Amount |
| Old rate, Pre-SB 40 | $362.00 | $6.00 |
| January 1, 2025 | $446.00 | $12.66 |
| January 1, 2026 | $530.00 | $19.33 |
| January 1, 2027 | $614.00 | $26.00 |
| January 1, 2028, and every January 1 beyond | Previous year’s maximum increased by rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index | |
The Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity recently announced that these new changes will go into effect Wednesday, April 2nd. Although this bill was signed into law in December, the legislature did not provide immediate effect to the legislation, meaning the changes could not be implemented until April 2nd.
Although the law will not take effect until April 2nd, because the law states January 1st, 2025, as the date for rate increases, the Unemployment Insurance Agency has announced a case-by-case review of all active claims filed between Jan. 1 and April 2 to make retroactive determinations for claimants who qualify for the increased maximum benefit amount. There will be no retroactive change to maximum benefit weeks for claimants in this time window.