Aggregation of periods for unemployment benefits
In most EU countries entitlement to an unemployment benefit is dependent on the condition that the unemployed person has worked/been insured during a certain period preceding the application for an unemployment benefit (i.e., the qualifying period). In some cases, the period of insurance, employment, or self-employment of an EU/EFTA mover might be insufficient to be entitled to an unemployment benefit in the Member State where the person was last employed (i.e., the competent Member State). In such cases, additional periods completed by the person in another Member State and proven by a Portable Document U1 (PD U1) or the corresponding Structured Electronic Documents (SED) U002 and U004 are required. These periods should be taken into account by the Member State of last activity when determining access to an unemployment benefit.
The qualifying period before you can get access to unemployment benefits varies significantly across EU countries, from at least 4 months in France to 24 months in Slovakia. Nevertheless, many EU countries apply a qualifying period of 12 months. See details in our guides for the 27 EU member states + Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
To aggregate periods of insurance, the competent institution where the person applied for unemployment benefits must contact the institutions of the EU countries whose legislation the person has also been subject to in order to determine all periods completed under their legislation. The periods of insurance, employment, or self-employment completed by a worker in another Member State that are to be considered for the award of unemployment benefits are certified by a Portable Document U1 (PD U1) or the corresponding Structured Electronic Document (SED) U002 for insurance periods and (SED) U004 for employment/income. The PD U1 is issued to the worker upon his or her request by the institution of the Member State where the person completed the periods of insurance, employment, or self-employment. The SED U002 and SED U004 are issued upon request of the competent institution through EESSI.
A mobile worker becomes subject to the legislation of a Member State as soon as he or she starts to work there. Hence, the aggregation rules become fully applicable from that moment on. However, not all EU countries uniformly apply this principle. Some EU countries (for instance, Belgium, Finland, and Denmark) require that the person must have worked for some time (4 weeks up to 3 months) in their country before he/she can use the aggregation rule.
- Unemployment insurance in Europe →
- Social security coordination →
Aggregation rule
You might also be interested in:
⇒Unemployment Insurance Schemes in EU
⇒Unemployment Insurance in the Nordic countries
Key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination
- Transferring periods of work and insurance between EEA countries As an EU citizen you can transfer acquired rights from Unemployment Insurance when moving between EU/EEA contries. In this way it may be easier to become entitled to unemployment benefit in the country you move to.
In the vast majority of the Member states the aggregation rule become fully applicable as soon as you starts to work in the country. However in Denmark, Belgium and Finland you must work some period there before you can use the aggregation rule.
You need a PD U1 document in the country you leave or if the involved countries use electronically exhange (EESSI) there will be issued a SED U002. The countries who issues the highest number of PD U1 documents are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The countries who receives most PD U1 documents are Lithuania and Italy. - Transferring unemployment benefits Under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from the country where you became unemployed. The period you can export your unemployment benefits varies from 3 to 6 months in the different Member states.
You have to apply for a PD U2 document in the country you leave, or if you haven't done that the institution in the receiving country must request a SED U008 from the competent institution in your last country.
The countries who issues the highest number of PD U2 documents are Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Poland is the country who receives by far most PD U2 documents. - Unemployment benefits coverage According to OECD the net replacement of income after 2 months of unemployment, for a single person without children whose previous in-work earnings were 67% of the average wage varies from 33 percent (Ireland) to 91 percent (Belgium). Read more here..
- Having residence in another EU country than where you work? According to EU social security coordination rules you must only be insured against unemployment in one country at a time. As a generel rule this country is where you work.
In Member states who have compulsory insurance, you will automatically be covered when you start working there.
However you may be insured by your country of residence if you are posted to a EU/EEA country or work in two or more EU/EEA countries at a time. In these situations you can not your self decide where to have unemployment Insurance, but you (or your employer) must apply for a PD A1 document which states in which country you are covered by social security, including Unemployment Insurance. Special rule also apply for cross-border workers ("frontier workers"). - Third-country Nationals working in EU/EEANON-EEA citizens are covered by Unemployment Insurance in the EU countries who have compulsory Unemployment Insurance. In countries with voluntary Unemployment Insurance (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) third-country nationals can become member of an Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In the most countries Third-country nationals can also use the EU Coordination rules when moving within EU/EEA (however not in Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Third-country nationals in short-tem working relations often faces problems with actually get Unemployment benefits, even though they have contributed to the system. This is due to the fact that one normally need a residence permit which allow one to take any job, and also because of a qualifying period in most countries between 6-12 months.