If you work full time, you are not eligible for unemployment benefits. If you only work part time, you may still be eligible for an unemployment benefit that is reduced by your other income.
An adjusted unemployment allowance can be paid if you accept a part-time or full-time job that lasts no more than two weeks or you receive income from working as a part-time entrepreneur or self-employed person.
A part-time job is defined as work under an employment contract of no more than 80% of the maximum working hours for full-time employees in that sector.
You will be viewed as a part-time entrepreneur or self-employed person if the working hours required by your activities are sufficiently few to not prevent you from accepting a full-time job. The decision on your status is made by the TE Office.
The 300-euro monthly exempt amount will no longer be applied to unemployment benefits. The change will apply to unemployment benefit claims for any period starting on or after 1 April 2024. After the change, all earned income will affect the amount of unemployment benefit you receive, and your benefit will be reduced by 50 cents for every euro you earn.
The adjusted unemployment benefit you received is calculated on the basis of an adjustment period. This is a period over which your earnings are totalled to determine how much your adjusted unemployment benefit will be. The length of the adjustment period depends on your pay period and is either one calendar month or four weeks.
Adjusted unemployment benefit is paid every day during the adjustment period (5 days/week) unless there are reasons preventing this.
Your wages and/or any other payment you have received as compensation for work will be considered as earnings in the calculation. In addition to wages, your earnings can include wage-like remunerations and entrepreneurial income. However, copyright remunerations, tax-exempt scholarships and grants or remuneration from a role in a position of trust are not included.
If you receive labour market subsidy from Kela, you should be aware that labour market subsidy is subject to means-testing, which may also reduce the amount of your labour market subsidy. The means-test takes into account income other than earned income, such as capital income and regular copyright royalties. However, one-off copyright royalties are not taken into account.
If you receive adjusted daily allowance from an unemployment fund or adjusted basic unemployment allowance from Kela, the total sum of your allowance and earnings cannot exceed the earnings on which the allowance calculation is based. For example, if monthly earnings of EUR 2,000 were used as the basis for the allowance calculation, the total amount of the adjusted allowance and earnings could not exceed EUR 2,000.
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