Possible problems with earnings-related income security

Registering as an unemployed job-seeker in the TE Office is a necessary condition for the payment of unemployment security. You can do that by yourself in the TE Office online service. Follow the instructions carefully and ensure that your job-seeking is valid. It is easy to leave your registering incomplete, so be careful!

You must also  register as an unemployed job-seeker if you are laid off.

You may receive a job offer from the TE Office. If you do not apply for the offered job, the TE Office may punish you by giving you a suspension period. We cannot pay you daily allowance for that period. So, you should apply for the offered job, even if you think that it is not suitable to you. The TE Office think that  it is up to the employer to evaluate the suitability. Your own view on whether the job is suitable is not an acceptable reason not to apply for the offered job.

We can only pay daily allowance retroactively for three months from the date you submit your application. This time limit also concerns further applications.

Remember that you can submit your first application when you have been unemployed for  two weeks. After that, you should submit your application without delay.

We can pay you a daily allowance once you have been an unemployed job-seeker in the TE Office for a period that equals five full working days. That is called the waiting period. As a general rule, you can only have one waiting per year.

However, the waiting period must be made up  in full over eight consecutive calendar weeks. Here is an example: if you have, been laid off occasionally on few days, it is possible that these days will not make up the required waiting period during eight consecutive calendar weeks. That means that the waiting period will start again. That may happen every eight weeks, and you may never be paid an earnings-related daily allowance.

When you work part-time or are a part-time entrepreneur, you can apply for a daily allowance. Your salary and entrepreneurial income will decrease your daily allowance, but in most cases, you will be paid something.

So, remember to keep your job-seeking valid in the TE Office and continue to apply for daily allowance in the normal manner.

If you are unemployed and receive a home care allowance, it is always deducted from the unemployment benefit paid to you. If your spouse receives a home care allowance b ut your spouse does not care for the child himself/herself, the home care allowance paid to your spouse will be deducted from your unemployment benefit. This means that if your child is regularly in day-care outside your home, even part-time, the home care allowance paid to your spouse will be deducted from your daily unemployment allowance.

A spouse is someone you are married to or living with. . Home care allowance paid to an unmarried same-sex  partner can also be deducted from the applicant’s daily allowance.

If you are absent from the labour market for more than six months without an acceptable reason, you will lose the working condition you have built up, and we cannot pay you an earnings-related daily allowance.

In a typical case the employee receives a redundancy benefit and does not  register as a job-seeker. When the redundancy benefit ends, they apply for an earnings-related daily allowance, but will not get it, because they have not been on the labour market.

You are considered to be on the labour market in the following situations: You are working in  employment that fulfils the working condition, your work as an entrepreneur, you participate in employment promoting activities, or you are an unemployed job-seeker registered in the TE Office. Acceptable reasons  for absence from the labour market include illness, institutional care, rehabilitation, military service, non-military service, full-time studying, scholarship period, birth of a child, care of a child under the age of 3, or another equivalent reason.

You can work for a short time in a job with a smaller salary without your earnings-related daily allowance decreasing. However, that also works the other way around. If you work for a short time in a job with a bigger salary, your daily allowance will not necessarily increase.

You are not entitled to receive unemployment benefit for the same period for which you are entitled to pay for notice period or similar compensation.

When an employer lays off an employee, the employer can  deduct 14 days from the notice period if the employee has been laid off using a lay-off notice period of more than 14 days, in accordance with the law or agreement. This means that if the lay-off notice period is exactly 14 days, it cannot be deducted from the notice period of notice at all, and we cannot pay a daily allowance for that period.

If you receive a sickness allowance, you cannot receive an unemployment benefit. If you received an unemployment benefit before the beginning of your sickness allowance, you can apply for a daily allowance for the waiting period of your sickness allowance.

To receive an unemployment benefit, you must fulfil the working condition. As a general rule, you build up the working condition  when you are at work. If you receive a part-time sickness allowance while working, the work for that period cannot be included in the working condition.

To receive an unemployment benefit, you must fulfil the working condition. As a general rule, you build up the working condition  when you are at work. If you receive reduced pay during illness based on a collective agreement of the private or public sector, your work for that period cannot be included in the working condition.

When you change the unemployment fund, remember to join the new unemployment fund within one month from resigning from the old fund. If you exceed the time limit, you will lose the working condition you built up earlier.

If you work in your family member’s company and live in the same household with him/her, you will be considered an entrepreneur for the purposes of the Unemployment Security Act. This means that as a member of the employee fund you do not build up  the working. And this means that if you become unemployed,  we cannot pay you an earnings-related daily allowance.

When you are an entrepreneur, the TE Office will evaluate how your work as an entrepreneur  affects your chances to apply for a full-time job. The TE Office may determine that you are a full-time entrepreneur. This means that case we cannot pay you a daily allowance even if you fulfil the employee’s working condition  in another job.

A change in the law that entered into force on 1 July 2019 improved the position of the family members of an entrepreneur in terms of unemployment security. After the change, a family member that is a non-owner but works in the company  will be considered an employee. However, family members of an entrepreneur  that are owners  in the company and those who are considered  entrepreneurs under the Self-employed Persons Pension Acts will still be considered entrepreneurs.