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Home Income security Mobility allowance Restrictions on mobility allowance

Restrictions on mobility allowance

Mobility allowance is intended to support employment. With the allowance, you have a better chance of applying for and accepting a job from further afield.

The restrictions on the mobility allowance are easy to understand against this background. You cannot use mobility allowance if it will not support you finding a new job or if the conditions related to the duration of the commute are not met in reality.

Mobility allowance is also partly tied to the eligibility to unemployment benefit. Ineligibility of earnings-related unemployment allowance may therefore also prevent the payment of mobility allowance.

General restrictions

We can only pay mobility allowance on the basis of one employment relationship and related training at a time.

We can only pay mobility allowance for part-time work for the days when you have actually worked.

We cannot pay mobility allowance for days when work and payment of wages have been interrupted due to a lay-off, a reason comparable to a lay-off or a reason attributable to the person themselves.

A prerequisite for receiving mobility allowance is that you are entitled to unemployment benefit. In practice, this means that we cannot grant you mobility allowance if you change directly from one job to another. You must spend at least one day as an unemployed jobseeker in between to be entitled to unemployment benefit.

If you work part-time or work full-time for less than two weeks, you may be entitled to unemployment benefit. In these situations, you can receive mobility allowance even if you switch directly from one job to another.

New employment only

We can only grant mobility allowance for a new employment relationship. In other words, we cannot grant mobility allowance if, for example, you return from a full-time lay-off to work for an employer that you worked for. 

Only once per employment

If you have already applied for mobility allowance once for an employment relationship and the allowance has been paid, we cannot pay the allowance for the same employment relationship again.

We also cannot grant you several mobility allowance periods if you have successive fixed-term contracts with the same employer on the same terms. That is, in such a situation, you cannot receive a new period of assistance on the basis of a new employment contract. Such successive employment contracts with the same employer shall be considered as a single employment relationship.

Things to consider within the award period

We cannot pay the granted allowance for days where work and payment of wages have been interrupted for at least one full day due to a lay-off or a reason comparable to a lay-off.

The same applies to unpaid sick leave. During this period, we cannot pay mobility allowance. 

However, such lay-off and sick days count towards the maximum duration of mobility allowance.


The commute does not take place

The nature of the work can sometimes be such that commuting time does not actually meet the criteria set for the duration of the trip. Even if there is enough distance to the employer’s office to grant a mobility allowance, we cannot grant a mobility allowance if you visit the office rarely, for example due to remote work. For example, if you regularly visit an employer’s office only twice a week, the requirement for average commuting time is not met.

Only three months retroactively

You can apply for mobility allowance for a maximum of 3 months retroactively. If you have started an employment relationship or work-related training for which you need mobility support, you can apply for mobility allowance within three months of starting your work or related training. However, to make sure you remember to apply for the allowance on time, it is advisable to submit the application as soon as the work begins.

We pay mobility allowance at most until the end of the employment relationship or the discontinuation of work-related training.