How do you file a South Carolina unemployment claim in MyBenefits?

You file in the state where your employer is or where you earned the wages, not where you live, so a worker who lives across the state line but earned wages at a Greenville job files with DEW. If your employer has already filed a claim for you, the handbook says you do not file your own unless the employer stops filing, and an employer can file only 6 weeks for you. If you are still unemployed or partially unemployed after those 6 weeks, you file your own claim to keep receiving benefits.

When to file, and the Sunday your claim counts from

File in the first week you are out of work. Under DEW's regulations every new claim takes effect on the Sunday before the day you file it, or on the day itself if you file on a Sunday, and benefits can be claimed only from that date. A DEW representative may backdate a claim when good cause explains the late filing, and the regulation leaves that decision to DEW.

Your benefit year starts on that Sunday and runs 52 weeks. DEW says filing a claim is the only way it can decide whether you are eligible, so file even if you doubt you qualify.

What to have ready

DEW's Applying for Benefits page and its Filing Hints and Tips page ask for different spans of work history. The first asks for the past 18 months, and the second asks for the past 2 years with more detail per job. Gather the 2 years and you have what both pages want.

• Your Social Security number.
• For each employer: the business name, address, and phone number, your dates of work, your rate of pay and total earnings, and why the job ended.
• The amount of any severance or retirement pay you received. Report it; DEW decides what it means for your claim.
• If you are not a U.S. citizen: your alien registration number and the expiration date on your Employment Authorization Document.
• If you served in the military in the past 18 months: your DD-214, Member 4 copy.
• If you were a federal civilian employee: an SF-50 or SF-8 form, and your pay stubs.
• Your bank's routing number and your account number, if you want direct deposit. You can add them later, and DEW says direct deposit pays faster than waiting on the mail.

Filing online in MyBenefits

MyBenefits is DEW's claimant portal, the same place you will certify each week. DEW's guide to registering for MyBenefits and its guide to filing a new claim show each screen.

1. Create your username and password. The portal then closes and drops you back at the login screen; this is DEW's security step, so log in again with the new details to tie them to your registration.
2. Complete the identity verification that account setup includes.
3. File your new claim. If you log out or time out partway, log back in and pick "Resume My UI Claim" on the dashboard; your answers are saved, and you click Next through the finished tabs to get back to where you stopped.
4. Write down the confirmation number that appears on the screen at the end.

You can send proof of past work while you file: the screen that asks for supporting documents has an Upload button under its check boxes.

Once you reach the completion page you cannot change the claim online. For an honest mistake, call 1-866-831-1724 and ask for a claims specialist. While you file, DEW's chatbot, Dewy, answers claim questions. Before you type a password anywhere, check for the lock icon and dew.sc.gov or scuihub.dew.sc.gov in the address bar, as DEW's fraud page advises.

If you do not have a computer

DEW's handbook says South Carolina's unemployment process is all online, with no paper applications and no lines. If you have no computer or smartphone, the computer labs at SC Works Centers and the computer stations at more than 150 Connection Points have the equipment, guides, and tutorials to help you file.

DEW's handbook describes a Connection Point as a place such as a library, community center, or nonprofit that has partnered with DEW to offer free public computers and tools that guide jobseekers through unemployment and the job search. DEW adds that it does not own, control, or monitor these sites or their computers, and that you use them at your own risk. SC Works says each site sets its own status, so call ahead to check it is open.

Identity verification with ID.me is a one-time step, and DEW's ID.me FAQ says you can do it on a borrowed device or a public one, such as a library computer. On a borrowed device, you will likely finish on a video call with ID.me.

The SC Works Centers themselves have resource rooms for filing. From July 1, 2026, staff there must verify your information and collect documents before they help you if you need SC Works jobseeker services, have had no staff-assisted services in the last 3 months, or need to update the identification in your SC Works Online Services profile. Any one of those is enough. Using SC Works Online Services on your own, for job searches or resumes, needs no documents, and SC Works' PASS page lists the documents staff accept. South Carolina's SC Works Centers lists each center with its hours.

Calling DEW, and when the lines are open

DEW's pages describe filing only in MyBenefits and give its phone line for help along the way. Call 1-866-831-1724 (Relay 711) with questions about your claim. The same number gets you free help in a language other than English.

For a general question that does not need your claim details, DEW's UI Webform can save you the wait on hold. DEW will not share anything about an individual claim through it.

Signing in, getting locked out, and verifying with ID.me

A forgotten MyBenefits password can be reset 3 ways: by answering your security questions, by a code sent to you by text, or by a code sent to the email address on file. DEW's guide to resetting your username or password shows the screens. If none of those works, DEW's claims line, 1-866-831-1724, is the number it gives for further help with the portal.

DEW checks your identity through ID.me, which its ID.me FAQ calls its federally certified partner for identity verification. You enter a phone number for mobile phone verification and upload photos of a government ID. If ID.me will not accept the photos, keep all 4 corners of the ID in view, turn off the flash, lay the ID on a dark surface, and match the orientation, such as landscape for a driver's license.

• After 3 failed attempts, click "Verify identity on a video call" to reach a trained ID.me employee, called a Trusted Referee.
• For that call, have the physical documents in hand: 2 primary IDs, or 1 primary and 2 secondary IDs.
• The wait for the call varies with demand, but once it starts, verification should take 15 minutes or less.
• An error saying you already verified usually means a second ID.me account. Sign in to the one you verified before.

If you do not remember verifying, or cannot remember that login, ID.me's member support team at help.id.me is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Your first weeks after filing

A monetary determination comes in the mail. It shows the benefits you could receive if approved and how DEW worked them out, the number of weeks you could be paid, and how to appeal or ask for a reconsideration. Go over it: if base-period wages are missing, call 1-866-831-1724 or dispute them in MyBenefits, and be ready to send a paystub or a W2.

You certify for your first week in the week after you file, and the first eligible week is unpaid. South Carolina's weekly certification covers the deadline, the work searches, and payment. Without direct deposit, your debit card from Money Network arrives in the mail 7 to 10 days after your eligibility is certified. Keep your contact details current with DEW: the handbook warns that stale contact details can delay payment or put a fraud alert on your account.

Sending documents to DEW

DEW posts its letters in the Documents tab of MyBenefits, and its claimant app shows them too. Check that tab often and send anything DEW asks for as soon as you can, since a late document delays your payments.

1. In MyBenefits, open that tab, which DEW's upload guide calls "My Documents", and select "Upload Document". It works the same way on a phone or a computer.
2. Select "Choose Files" next to Upload Content. If DEW asked you to verify your identity, put your claimant ID number on each page.
3. In the "This document is related to my:" field, pick what the document is for, then select "Save".
4. Look for "Document is successfully uploaded" on the screen. If you cannot see the document in your portal afterward, DEW's guide says DEW can still see it.

On an iPhone, choose "take photo": a photo already on the phone is rejected because its file name is too long. On Android, save the photo to your phone first and upload it from the camera roll. DEW's guide to uploading from a phone shows each screen. DEW names the route for some documents: a federal affidavit goes back by upload to the portal or by mail, as the federal section below explains.

If you worked as a 1099 contractor

DEW's filing tips tell self-employed, 1099, and gig workers to list the name they use when filing with the IRS as the employer, and to use their Social Security number if they have no federal EIN. DEW figures the weekly amount and the claim total only from wages paid by an employer covered by South Carolina's unemployment law, so contract or gig income that no covered employer reported as wages does not count toward them.

If you think a company wrongly treated you as a contractor, say so: DEW says a misclassified worker's wages will not have been reported, and it opens an investigation of the employer to decide the right classification. Once you are claiming, self-employment that would pay more than your weekly benefit amounts over the same time bars you from benefits for that time, and the handbook lists full-time self-employment among the reasons a claimant may be ineligible.

If you worked for the federal government

Federal civilian workers file with DEW too, under the federal program for federal employees, and DEW pays it in the same amount and on the same terms as a South Carolina claim, as if your federal wages were South Carolina wages. The handbook says to report your federal wages in the state where your duty station was. Wages from another employer after you left the federal job are reported where you earned them.

After the claim is processed, DEW may mail you an Affidavit of Federal Civilian Service, Form ETA-935, asking about your wages and why the job ended. Upload it to MyBenefits, or mail it with proof of employment to SCDEW, Attn: Exceptions Unit, PO Box 995, Columbia, SC 29202. If your federal agency does not answer DEW in time, DEW uses the pay records you sent, such as a leave and earnings statement or a W-2, to estimate your benefits.

Former service members file the same way, under the federal program for ex-service members. Bring at least one of: your most recent DD214 Member 4, orders to report, orders of release, a military leave and earnings statement, or W-2 forms from your latest service. If this is your first claim since release and you do not live in South Carolina, DEW tells you to contact the workforce agency of the state you are in.

If you live outside South Carolina

If you live in another state and lost a job with a South Carolina employer, you file an interstate claim, and DEW takes new, additional, and reopened interstate claims only online in MyBenefits. DEW says processing takes 4 to 6 weeks for a quit, discharge, or still-working claim, and 2 to 3 weeks for a lack-of-work claim. If DEW needs more about why the job ended, your claim representative mails you a notice with the date and time of a phone interview within 7 calendar days of filing. For technical trouble with that claim, DEW's Online Filing Assistance Line, 1-800-529-8339 (Relay 711), is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern. If you have not worked in South Carolina within the last 18 months, the handbook says to file in the state where you live or where you last worked.