Changes to the Unemployment Security Act 2024
Waiting period extended to seven days
Before the payment of earnings-related allowance can begin, a waiting period is applied and daily allowance is not paid for this period. The waiting period extended from five to seven days from 1.1.2024. it must correspond to seven workdays and must be completed within eight consecutive calendar weeks.
Holiday compensation
If you have worked full-time more than two weeks and you receive holiday compensation at the end of your employment relationship, this will postpone your right to the earnings-related allowance. Holiday compensation is paid for holidays that have not been taken during the employment relationship. If, for example, the amount of holidays compensation is equal to your one month’s salary, the earnings-related allowance is postponed by about a month. If the holiday compensation is paid for part-time work or for full-time work lasting no more than two weeks, the periodizing will not be done. But the holiday compensation is included in the salary when the adjusted allowance is paid.
Child increase will be abolished
Child increases will no longer be paid to to earnings-related allowances as of 1 April 2024.
The 300 euro protection amount will be removed
The protection amount will no longer be taken into account in the calculation of adjusted earnings-related unemployment daily allowances when the application periods starting on or after 1 April 2024.
The working condition will change from 2 September 2024
The working condition is 12 calendar months from September 2, 2024 and is income based. The changes mean that you must work for at least 12 calendar months to receive earnings-related allowance. The salary limit is 930 euros per month. The working condition can also be a accumulated in half months, if the salary is paid during the calendar month at least 465 euros, but less than 930 euros. In this case two half months of working condition constitute one month of working condition to be taken into account in the working condition.
The national pension index will be frozen in 2024-2027
This means that the level of the earnings-related daily allowance remains the same even if the consumer prices would rise.
Legislative changes (still in preparation)
Job alternation leave system will be abolished as of August 1, 2024
Job alternation leave means that you do not attend to your work for up to half a year and your employer will hire an unemployed person for this period. You will not receive a salary during this period, but rather job alternation leave compensation. Job alternation leave system will be abolished as of August 1, 2024.
The amount of earnings-related daily allowance will be staggered
The staggering of earnings-related daily allowance means that the amount of earnings-related unemployment allowance would fall to 80% of the original level after 2 months (8 weeks) of unemployment. And the amount would fall to 75% of the original level after 8 months (34 weeks) of unemployment. According to current information, the change will enter into force on 1 September.
Subsided work is not counted to working condition
The TE Office may grant an employer pay subsidy for employing an employee. Pay-subsidised work counts towards the working condition at a rate of 75 percent. The plan is that the subsidied work would no longer be counted to the working condition. According to current information, the change will enter into force on 1 September 2024.
Age-related exceptions will be removed
If the law comes into force, the following age-related exceptions will be removed from the Unemployment Security Act:
- The employment obligation which guarantees a job to a person aged 57 or over.
- Protection of earnings-related daily allowance for persons aged 58 or over (the allowance is not recalculated if it were to decrease).
- Persons aged 60 or over may fulfil the working condition when participating in an employment promoting service.