State Unemployment Benefits in New Hampshire
New Hampshire Employment Security administers unemployment compensation. When a claimant dies with benefits still owed, N.H. Code Admin. R. Emp 502.02 pays the accrued benefits to the executor or administrator of the estate or, where the estate is too small to justify formal administration, to the surviving spouse, minor children, heirs-at-law, or a governmental agency that paid for burial. The written application is due within 3 months of the death.
Steps to take when someone dies
Required Documents
- Affidavit of relationship to the deceased: if the applicant is not the executor or administrator. States the applicant's relationship to the deceased in the order Emp 502.02(b) lists.
- Official death certificate: if the applicant is not the executor or administrator
- Benefit checks issued to the deceased: if any were issued and not cashed. Returned to the commissioner for cancellation; a check that cannot be produced is explained before replacement funds are paid.
State Unemployment Benefits in New Hampshire: key facts
What New Hampshire says6
- Reporting a death
The claimant's death is reported to New Hampshire Employment Security so the claim is closed and no further weekly payments are issued.1
- Benefits at and after the death
Emp 502.02(a) pays benefits that accrued and were unpaid at the claimant's death, including issued but uncashed benefit checks, on written application.2
Emp 502.02(c) caps a payment to a governmental agency that bore the burial expense at the lesser of the accrued benefits or the burial expense it bore.2
- Who may claim a final payment
Emp 502.02(a) pays the benefits to the duly qualified administrator or executor of the estate. Where none is appointed because the estate has insufficient assets to justify formal administration, Emp 502.02(b) pays in a fixed order, starting with the surviving spouse.2
After the surviving spouse come unemancipated minor children (through a guardian, a person or institution obligated to support them, or a person who furnished them necessaries worth at least the benefit), then the heirs-at-law in the order set by RSA 561, then a governmental agency that bore the burial expense.2, 3
- Deadline
Emp 502.02(d) requires the written application within 3 months after the death. The commissioner extends the time on a showing that the late filing was due to accident, mistake, or misfortune and not neglect.2
Under Emp 502.02(g), benefits nobody claims within that time or any extension of it remain part of the unemployment fund.2
- Documents for a final payment
Under Emp 502.02(e), a claimant who is not the executor or administrator files an affidavit stating their relationship to the deceased, plus an official death certificate.2
Under Emp 502.02(f), benefit checks issued to the deceased are returned to the commissioner for cancellation; if they cannot be produced, the applicant explains why before replacement funds are paid.2
- Overpayments
RSA 282-A:31 requires a claimant to be able and available for work, and RSA 282-A:165 makes benefits paid when the chapter's conditions were not met repayable to the commissioner as an overpayment, so weeks after the date of death are not certified.4
Governing law: RSA 282-A:24; N.H. Code Admin. R. Emp 502.02
Deadlines1
- Written application for benefits due a deceased claimant
within 3 months of the death; unclaimed benefits remain part of the unemployment fund, unless the commissioner extends the time for accident, mistake, or misfortune2
New Hampshire unemployment benefits
New Hampshire Employment Security (NHES)
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