Terms and duration

Front page ❯ If you become unemployed ❯ Terms and duration

You can receive earnings-related unemployment allowance from the unemployment fund if:

  • you are seeking full-time employment and have registered as an unemployed jobseeker at the Employment and Economic Development Office (TE Office),
  • you are a member of the unemployment fund,
  • you have fulfilled the 12-month work requirement.

If you become unemployed or have your working hours reduced, you should immediately register as an unemployed job-seeker via the TE Office’s online service. You will be registered immediately. It is not, however, possible to have this registration applied retrospectively to, for example, the previous day. Earnings-related allowance may be paid only for the period in which the registration is valid.

If you are not a member of an unemployment fund or have been employed for a long enough time, you should apply for unemployment support from Kela.

The 12-Month Work Requirement and the Impact of the Law Amendment

The conditions for receiving earnings-related unemployment allowance changed on September 2, 2024. The biggest change concerns the work history required to receive the allowance. Until September 1, 2024, earnings-related allowance could be granted after six months of work. Starting in September, one year of work is required. During the working period, you must be a member of an unemployment fund.

Work requirement until September 1, 2024: 26 calendar weeks (approximately six months)

Work requirement starting from September 2, 2024: 12 calendar months (1 year)

At the same time, the way work is calculated will change. Previously, calendar weeks in which a person worked at least 18 hours contributed to the entitlement for unemployment allowance. Starting in September, the entitlement will no longer depend on the number of hours worked before unemployment. In the future, sufficient work before unemployment will be assessed solely based on salary. Earning at least 930 euros in a calendar month will fulfill one month of the earnings-related work requirement. Earning at least 465 euros will fulfill half a month of the requirement. Therefore, the right to earnings-related allowance can be established, for example, through a period of 10 full and 4 half working months.

Work weeks accrued before September 1, 2024, will be converted into months so that four weeks will count as one month. Of any remaining weeks, three weeks will form one month, and one or two weeks will form half a month that contributes to the entitlement for earnings-related unemployment allowance.

More information: New terms for earnings-related unemployment benefit

80% work is part-time work

You may also be eligible to receive earnings-related allowance for a part-time job, a gig job, or while being laid-off. A job is considered to be part-time work if, for example, you do four days of work a week. More information about what to do if you are partially employed is available here.

Obligations

You may forfeit your rights to received earnings-related allowance (temporarily or permanently) if you do not maintain your status as a job-seeker with the TE Office or comply with their instructions. This means, for example, keeping your employment plan up-to-date, attending any necessary appointments and meetings, and participating in the various services arranged by the TE Office. For more information on your obligations relating to the TE Office, please visit the TE Office’s online service.

If you are out of the labour market (i.e. you are not employed or registered as a job-seeker with the TE office) for more than six months without an acceptable reason, the requirement relating to 26 working weeks mentioned above will expire. This means that you can only receive the daily allowance once you have been in work again for a period of 26 weeks. Acceptable causes include, for example, studies, military service, civil service, illness, or caring for a child under 3 years old.

Calculate your earnings-related daily allowance

Monthly salary

Business activity may affect your right to a daily allowance

If you have a business, the TE Office will investigate how extensive your business activities are and decide whether they are sufficient enough to prevent the payment of the earnings-related allowance. Small-scale or so-called ancillary business activity does not prevent payment of a daily allowance. For example, ancillary business activity can be demonstrated through it having been done alongside a full-time job for at least 6 months. More information about this is available here.

Students receive daily allowance after graduating

If you are studying, for example, at a vocational college or university, you are only eligible to receive an earnings-related allowance after your graduation. As soon as you become unemployment, register as a job-seeker via the TE Office’s online service. More information about this is available here.

How long will the earnings-related allowance be paid?

In most cases, earnings-related allowance is payable for a maximum of 300 or 400 days. In order for the maximum 400 day payment to be applied, you must have been employed for more than 3 years before registering as unemployed. If you are at least 58 years old and have been in work for at least 5 years out of the previous 20 years, you are eligible to receive a maximum of 500 days daily allowance.

Unemployment allowance is paid to fully unemployed individuals for five days per week. Therefore, the maximum duration of 300 days will be exhausted in approximately 60 weeks (around 14 months), 400 days in 80 weeks (around 18 months), and 500 days in 100 weeks (around 23 months).

If you do freelance or part-time work, the maximum period is used up more slowly. You can also reset the maximum period of unemployment allowance by working. A 12-month period of work will restart the maximum period from the beginning.

Work history (and age) Maximum duration
You have been employed for a total of 3 years or less 300 days (approx. 14 months)
You have been employed for a total of more than 3 years 400 days (approx. 18 months)
You are 58 years old and you have at least 5 years of work history in the last 20 years 500 days (approx. 23 months)

If you remain unemployed for more than the maximum duration, you can claim unemployment benefits from Kela. More information on unemployment benefits is available on Kela’s website.

Extra days for the elderly

Earnings-related allowance may continue to be paid after the maximum payment period until the age of 65 in so-called additional days if:

  • You were born between 1957 and 1960 and your 61st birthday came before the end of the maximum payment period OR
  • You were born in 1961-1962, and your 62nd birthday comes before the end of the maximum payment period OR
  • You were born in 1963 and your 63nd birthday comes before the end of the maximum payment period OR
  • You were born in 1964 and your 64nd birthday comes before the end of the maximum payment period.

You are also required to have worked for at least 5 years in the last 20 years and the right to the daily allowance has been received as a salaried employee.