Staggering of earnings-related allowance

Due to an amendment to the Unemployment Security Act carried out on 2 September 2024, earnings-related allowance will be staggered.

Staggering means that the amount of earnings-related allowance decreases the longer the unemployment lasts and the allowance is paid.

The amount of the daily allowance decreases:

after 40 days of paid daily allowance about two months) to 80% of the original level,
after 170 days of paid daily allowance (approx. 8 months) to 75% of the original level.

The staggering does not apply to you if you are paid earnings-related allowance on the basis of work that has ended no later than 1 September 2024. In this case, your employment condition has been met by 1 September 2024 and you will be paid daily allowance on the basis of the 26-calendar-week employment condition in accordance with the old act.

The staggering applies to you if you are paid earnings-related allowance on the basis of work you have done on or after 2 September 2024. In this case, your employment condition will be met on or after 2 September 2024 and you will be paid daily allowance on the basis of the 12-month employment condition in accordance with the new act.

Use the calculator to see an estimate of how staggering will affect on your daily allowance (TYJ’s calculator)

Example of daily allowance staggering

You become unemployed on 1 October 2024 and your employment condition is met on the basis of the new 12-month employment condition, meaning that the staggering will apply to you. As a fully unemployed person, you will receive daily allowance after the seven-day waiting period from 10 October 2024. The full amount of your daily allowance is €100 per day.

You will be paid a full daily allowance for the first 40 days (until 4 December 2024). After that (from 5 December 2024), your daily allowance will decrease to 80% (€80 per day). The 80% daily allowance will be paid to you for the next 130 days, i.e. until you have been paid daily allowance for a total of 170 days (5 December 2024 to 4 June 2025). After that, your daily allowance will decrease to 75% (€75/day). You will be paid a 75% daily allowance until the end of your full daily allowance period or until you meet the employment condition again.

The staggering applies to all recipients of earnings-related allowance including, for example, those on additional allowance days, those receiving adjusted daily allowance and those receiving entrepreneur’s earnings-related allowance. The staggering does not apply to the basic allowance paid by Kela or to the labour market subsidy.

A staggered earnings-related allowance uses up your daily allowance period (300, 400 or 500 days maximum) in the same way as without staggering. Each paid day therefore uses up one day of the maximum payment period (with the exception of adjusted daily allowance, read more below).

Reduced earnings-related allowance will be paid until the end of the daily allowance period

You will be paid a staggered (or reduced) earnings-related daily allowance until the end of your daily allowance period. Full daily allowance can be paid again when you meet the employment condition again and you start an entirely new period of daily allowance payment (maximum period of 300, 400 or 500 days).

You can see the daily allowance days paid to you and the maximum period in the eService in the section Status information > Calculators, and in your latest daily allowance payment notification.

For those receiving adjusted daily allowance, the staggering will take effect later

The staggering of earnings-related daily allowance also applies to those who are partially employed and are receiving adjusted daily allowance.

Since the adjusted daily allowance uses up days of the daily allowance period (maximum period of 300, 400 or 500 days) more slowly than normal, the staggering also starts to affect recipients of adjusted daily allowance later than normal.

In the adjusted daily allowance, the days are used up based on the number of full days daily allowance is paid for:

The amount of your full unemployment allowance is €100 per day. You are paid an adjusted allowance of €75 per day for a total of 20 days. You will use up 15 days of your daily allowance period (of your maximum period).

Please note that if you are paid an increased earnings-related allowance, each adjusted daily allowance day will, however, use up one full day of the maximum period.

Your staggered (or reduced) adjusted daily allowance is calculated by first calculating the amount of your reduced daily allowance, and only afterwards the impact of your work income will be taken into account.

Use the calculator to see an estimate of the effect of the staggering on the adjusted daily allowance (TYJ’s calculator)

Example of the staggering of daily allowance for recipients of adjusted daily allowance

Your full daily allowance is €100 per day. Your part-time work pay per month is €1075. Half of your earned income, i.e. €537.50, reduces your full daily allowance by €25 per day (537.50 / 21.5).

Your adjusted daily allowance at the beginning of unemployment is €75 per day (100 – 25).

If €75 per day of adjusted daily allowance is paid for 20 days, totaling €1500 (20 days x €75), the adjusted daily allowance will use up a total of 15 days (1500 / 100) from your daily allowance period (maximum period).

After the first 40 days of your daily allowance period (maximum period) have passed, your daily allowance will be reduced to 80%. Then, your adjusted daily allowance will be calculated from a reduced daily allowance of €80 per day (€100 per day x 0.80). The adjusted daily allowance is therefore €55 per day (€80 per day – €25 per day) after the first staggering.

If a reduced adjusted daily allowance of €55 per day is paid for 20 days, i.e. a total of €1100 (20 days x €55), the reduced adjusted daily allowance uses up a total of 14 days (1100/80) from your daily allowance period.

After a total of 170 days has been used up from your daily allowance period (maximum period), your daily allowance will be reduced to 75% of the full daily allowance, in which case the adjusted daily allowance amount would be €50 per day (€75 per day – €25 per day).

Please note that the total amount of the reduced adjusted daily allowance and the earned income taken into account during the adjustment period cannot exceed the amount of reduced daily allowance that could be paid to you without deducting your earned income.