Determination and payment of daily allowance

Entrepreneurs’ unemployment allowance is calculated based on your pension insurance level or an average of your pension insurance levels during the last 15 months prior to termination of your entrepreneurial activities. The insurance level selected in the fund may not exceed the annual income that your pension insurance is based on.

As provided for in the Unemployment Security Act, a maximum increase of 20 per cent can be observed within a 15-month period. If you opt to increase your insurance level over 20 per cent, you must maintain this increased level for at least 15 months to allow for any portion of the increase exceeding 20 per cent to be observed when determining your earnings-related unemployment allowance level.

If your insurance level in the Entrepreneur Fund has been higher than your pension insurance income, your daily allowance is calculated based on the pension income. If, however, your insurance level in the Entrepreneur Fund has been lower than the pension insurance income, your daily allowance will be determined based on your pension insurance income. Should your pension insurance income level and/or the income level you have reported to the Entrepreneur Fund have varied, unemployment allowance based on a monthly average of your income levels over the last 15 months prior to unemployment will be paid.

Use our calculators to get an estimate of your entrepreneur’s daily allowance or post protection allowance.

Graduation of daily allowance

The daily allowance will be graduated from 2.9.2024. In future, unemployment benefit will be reduced

• to 80% of the initial level after 40 days of unemployment benefit, and then
• to 75% of the initial level after 170 days of unemployment benefit.

The earnings-related unemployment allowance is paid for a maximum of five days per week, so 40 days of benefit means about two months and 170 days of benefit means about eight months.

Maximum payment period

Earnings-related daily unemployment allowance is paid five days a week over a maximum period of 300, 400 or 500 days. You have the right to 300 days if you have an employment history of fewer than three years, 400 days if you have an employment history of more than three years. Only employment after the age of 17 is counted towards your employment history.

If you meet the work requirement after turning 58 years of age and you have an employment history of at least five years over the last twenty years, the maximum payment period is 500 days.

For the most common maximum period of 400 days, the maximum payment period is reached in approximately 18 months (400 days/ 5= 80 weeks). Read more about what to do when the maximum period is reached on our website in the section titled What happens when your daily allowance ends?