Due to an amendment to the Unemployment Security Act, earnings-related unemployment allowance is staggered from now on. What this means is that the amount of earnings-related allowance decreases the longer the unemployment lasts and the allowance is paid.
Staggering reduces the amount of daily allowance
- to 80% of the initial amount once the earnings-related unemployment allowance has been paid for 40 days (approx. 2 months); and
- to 75% of the initial amount once the earnings-related unemployment allowance has been paid for 170 days (approx. 8 months).
The legislative amendment entered into force on 2 September 2024. The effects of the staggering system began to show in October and November, as the first individuals to whom this system applies had accumulated 40 allowance days.
Who does the staggering principle affect?
Generally speaking, the staggering principle applies to earnings-related unemployment allowance periods that started after the legislative amendment. If your unemployment started after the law entered into force and you have received salary in or after September 2024 and have earned the right to earnings-related unemployment allowance, the staggering will apply to you.
The staggering principle is also applied if you receive an adjusted daily allowance or if you are laid off.
If you receive earnings-related unemployment allowance based on work that ended on or before 1 September 2024, the staggering principle does not apply to you.
Read more about the staggering principle and who it affects: Staggering of earnings-related allowance
Only paid daily allowance days count
Please note that only days for which you have been paid daily allowance are relevant when determining the start date of staggering. If you have applied for earnings-related unemployment allowance but the payments have not yet started due to, for example, a waiting period and the periodisation of holiday compensation, these days do not count yet.
The daily allowance is paid for a maximum of five days per week (Monday-Friday), so the maximum number of paid daily allowance days you can accumulate in one week is five.
With adjusted daily allowance, the days are used up more slowly based on the number of full days the daily allowance has been paid for.
Use KOKO’s calculator to get an estimate of how staggering will affect your daily allowance.