Applying for daily allowance when working part-time

If you start part-time employment you should apply for daily allowance in accordance with your wage payment period and indicate the working days in the application. Your wage payment period may be a calendar month, a month or four calendar weeks.

If your wages are paid for a calendar month your application should cover a calendar month. Report your actual working hours and workdays in your application. Send your employment contract with your application if a contract has been made in writing.

Wages affect the daily allowance of the month on which they are paid (with the exception of lay-offs). For example, if you start part-time employment in May and your wages are paid in June, you should send an application for May, report your working hours in the application and attach your employment contract to the application. When applying for daily allowance for June you should report the hours you have worked in June. Wages paid in June are taken into consideration when determining the amount of adjusted daily allowance for June, even though the wages are paid for work performed in May.

If you perform occasional work, you can continue to apply for earnings-related daily allowance using the same schedule as before. It does not matter if a working period falls in the middle of an application period because adjusted daily allowance is paid for the duration of the entire application period. If your occasional work continues for a longer period, you must change your application period to align with your wage payment period, so that your income can be taken into consideration on a regular basis.

Please report your working hours in your application even if your income is less than the exempt amount (EUR 300 per month or EUR 279 per four weeks).

The fastest way to submit your application and attachments is via Unemployment Fund Pro’s electronic services.

Please remember to pay your membership fee from earned income subject to withholding tax.

Resetting the maximum period and rate of earnings-related daily allowance after the reset

When receiving adjusted daily allowance, days are accumulated towards the 26-week working condition as normal if you work at least 18 hours per week or receive pay on the basis of at least 18 weekly hours (e.g. annual leave). If you perform regular part-time work at least 18 hours per week, the maximum payment period resets after 26 working weeks and your daily allowance period starts over. However, your earnings-related allowance will not be recalculated if the new daily allowance period starts within one year of the start of the previous daily allowance period and the rate of daily allowance has been calculated at the previous time that the working condition was met. The same applies to the 5-day waiting period. A new waiting period will not be applied if the new daily allowance period starts within one year of the start of the previous daily allowance period and the waiting period was applied the previous time. In practice, the rate of earnings-related allowance is recalculated and the waiting period applied every other time that the working condition is met, if you are in regular part-time employment and you work at least 18 hours per week.

If you work occasionally or your weekly working hours vary in part-time employment, any weeks on which you work at least 18 hours or receive pay on the basis of at least 18 weekly working hours count towards the working condition. The 26 working weeks must be accumulated within a period of 28 months. Please note that the working condition is 12 calender months and income based from 2 September 2024. 

Please note that if you reach the maximum period of daily allowance before you have met the 26-week working condition, your new rate of earnings-related allowance will be calculated on the basis of income from these 26 weeks and the 80 percent protection does not apply to the rate of earnings-related daily allowance (= the amount of earnings-related daily allowance would be at least 80 percent of previous earnings-related daily allowance). This may result in a significant reduction in the amount of earnings-related daily allowance if the previous rate of earnings-related daily allowance was calculated based on full-time employment and you have met the new working condition in part-time employment. However, if you meet the 26-week working condition before reaching the maximum period of daily allowance (300 – 500 days) your new rate of earnings-related daily allowance is at least 80 percent of your previous rate. This is explained in more detail in the section Recalculation of daily allowance.

The 80-percent protection referred to above only applies to full earnings-related daily allowance. After meeting the working condition, the new rate of adjusted daily allowance might not be 80 percent of the previous rate that you received before the recalculation of the rate of earnings-related daily allowance. This is due to the upper limit applied to adjusted daily allowance, which is explained in more detail in the section Effects of income on earnings-related daily allowance.