Unemployment benefit change – what you need to know

New one is coming unemployment benefitAnd Which, according to the first information, will be linked to the salary of the beneficiary during his work and will not follow the legal minimum wage in the private sector.

How is it calculated?

As mentioned above, the amount of the allowance to be awarded will be linked to the salary that the unemployed person was earning when he was working. Basically, one will appear average income»From the last three years before the unemployed person lost his job and from there the unemployment benefit he will receive is determined as a percentage.

In the first phase, it is recommended that the duration of the allowance remain the same as it is today, i.e. up to 12 months.

But in the first half, it is possible to award a bonus of 55% of the above “average salary” for the last three years before dismissal. In the second half, the allowance will return to the already existing basis, that is, as a percentage of the minimum wage.

This is a pilot implementation of the proposals that are included in the report pissarides which were introduced to the government in 2020 and fundamentally change the way unemployment benefits are used.

Pissarides’ proposal states the following:

• Unemployment allowance of 55% of the average monthly salary of the unemployed person in the previous three years up to a maximum of 1,200 euros.
• The duration of the increased benefit must be 6 months, instead of the current 12 months, and paid on the condition that the unemployed person actively seeks work or participates in training programmes.
• If the unemployed person does not find a job after 6 months, then he will be given a period of up to 6 months or until he finds a job, if this happened earlier, the unemployment benefit is at the current level, that is, at 55% of the minimum wage.

It is worth noting that since April 1, the unemployment benefit has been set at 479 euros. This will also be the minimum threshold that will be generated to grant this benefit. Thus, the risk will be avoided that for the unemployed who were on low wages (such as 700 euros) during the three years preceding their dismissal, they will receive unemployment benefit less than the basis specified in the minimum wage.

According to what has become known so far, it is not specified how unemployment benefits will be awarded semi-workerwho are underpaid anyway.