After you file for unemployment and are deemed eligible, IWD offers two options for receiving your benefits payments: debit card or direct deposit. You can manage your payment options on iowaworks.gov.
When you file a claim for unemployment insurance benefits and select to receive payment by a U.S. Bank ReliaCard®, a card will be mailed to you. The card will not expire for three years, so please do not destroy the card. If you have received a card in the last three years, the card is still valid and payments will be issued to that card.
Your benefit payment will be deposited four to five business days after your weekly claim is filed, if all eligibility requirements are met. Holidays may delay the payment. 
The ReliaCard is issued and serviced by U.S. Bank. A new card may take up to 10 business days to arrive. Through the ReliaCard cardholder website, you can: 
Check your account balance. 
Review transaction history. 
Sign up for balance alerts (text messages and email). 
Sign up for notification of deposits by email. 
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Only IWD can update your personal information for the ReliaCard. 
Address or name changes should be reported to IWD. 
Card account balance and transaction history are not available to IWD staff. 
You can download the ReliaCard mobile app to manage your debit card. 
You must contact U.S. Bank to order a replacement card or to report a lost or stolen card. The ReliaCard customer service is available 24/7 for card inquiries at: 
You may also choose to have your unemployment benefit payments deposited directly into a checking or savings account. If you select this option, your benefit payment will be deposited four to five business days after the weekly claim is filed, as long as you meet all eligibility requirements.  Note that holidays can cause delays in payment. 
When benefits are paid out, it is your responsibility to verify that the payment was deposited into the correct account and routing numbers and to resolve any direct deposit errors directly with your financial institution. IWD is not responsible for incorrectly reported routing and/or account information. If funds are deposited into an incorrect account, it not only may delay your payment, but it’s possible that the money may not be recovered or returned to IWD or you. 
List items for How to Change Your Payment Option to Direct Deposit
To help protect sensitive information, IWD has limited access to updating account information and will not accept any paper forms that request to change it. By default, the IWD Debit Card will be the payment method for your benefits, unless you elect to update your banking information in your account. To do so, log into iowaworks.govand visit the Unemployment Services section. Then, click on Change Payment Method and follow the steps to add a checking or savings account. 
Because it takes time to process your claim, there will be a short delay after you first apply for unemployment benefits. If you elect to receive your payment by direct deposit, it can take 7-10 business days to receive your initial payment.  If you have selected an IWD debit card and have not been issued a card before, it may take more than 10 business days to receive your card in the mail. When you first receive it, it is likely that payments will already be loaded on the debit card.
The payment issue date is the date that IWD sends a payment to your debit card or personal checking or savings accounts. This date does not mean that your payment will be available on your card or in your bank account on the same day. For either payment option, the expected turnaround time for payments to reach you is four to five business days after being issued.
