Unemployment insurance benefit

In order to receive unemployment insurance benefits, you must have paid unemployment insurance contributions. This is a percentage of your wage that is sent to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and that is used to fund the system.

Your previous employment must have ended through no fault of your own. This means that you can only receive a benefit when your employer has terminated your contract, or when the contract has run out. No benefit is granted when you have left your job by choice, on your own initiative, or following a mutual agreement with your employer, or when you have been dismissed due to an infringement, loss of confidence, or indecent act or act of corruption.

As the unemployment insurance benefit is meant to help you look for new employment, actively searching for work is a requirement to receive the benefit.

You can demonstrate your willingness to work by registering with Töötukassa (which is a condition to gain access to almost all of the services and benefits that are offered to unemployed persons), and to participate in all the services that are offered to you.

The amount of the unemployment insurance benefit depends on your insurance record. The rules that apply to the calculation can be found in Chapter 2 of the Unemployment Insurance Act. When your application is approved, you will be given a decision in which the benefit is calculated, and the information that is used to make the calculation is repeated.

You can receive a daily amount of benefits until you have found new employment, or until the end of the maximum duration.

Payment of the benefit is stopped when the number of days during which you are entitled to it runs out, or when you no longer fulfil the requirements.

This will happen, for example, when you find new employment, when you fail to participate in trainings that are provided for you, or when you are de-registered as unemployed for another reason.