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Unemployment Insurance in Europe->UK
Unemployment insurance in UK
This article is about New Style Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).
You cannot apply for income-based JSA any more. If you're currently getting income-based JSA, you'll keep getting payments while you're eligible until your claim ends.
You could get Universal Credit at the same time or instead of New Style JSA. Check if you're eligible for Universal Credit.
When can you apply for JSA?
You can apply for New Style Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) to help you when you're looking for work.
What requirements must you meet?
To be eligible for New Style Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) you'll need to have both:
- worked as an employee
- paid Class 1 National Insurance contributions, usually in the last 2 to 3 years
You will not be eligible if you were self-employed and only paid Class 2 National Insurance contributions, unless you were working as a share fisherman or a volunteer development worker.
There are different eligibility rules if you're in Northern Ireland.
You must also:
- be 18 or over
- be under the State Pension age
- be in Great Britain
- not be working 16 or more hours per week
You will not be eligible if you're involved in a disagreement with your employer about employment-related issues (a 'trade dispute').
Your savings and your partner's savings will not affect your claim.
Your National Insurance contributions
To be eligible you must usually have made Class 1 National Insurance contributions for the previous 2 tax years. National Insurance credits can count for one of these years if you did not pay National Insurance contributions.
If you work
You cannot usually get New Style JSA if you work 16 or more hours per week.
Your earnings can reduce the amount of New Style JSA you get.
If you're in education
If you're studying part-time you may be eligible for JSA.
If you're studying full-time, you may be eligible if all of the following apply:
- the qualification you're studying for is at Level 4 or below
- you do not get a maintenance loan, grant or bursary for the qualification you're studying
- you can meet the work-related requirements agreed with your work coach
Claiming Universal Credit and New Style JSA
You might be able to get Universal Credit at the same time or instead of New Style JSA.
If you get both benefits, your New Style JSA payments:
- count as income when claiming Universal Credit
- will reduce the amount of Universal Credit you receive
Your New Style JSA will usually be paid more regularly than Universal Credit. You'll also get different National Insurance credits which count towards your State Pension and help you qualify for other benefits.
What are you entitled to?
There's a maximum amount you can get - but how much you're entitled to depends on your age.
Use a benefits calculator to check how much JSA you can get, and how your other benefits will be affected.
| Age | JSA weekly amount |
| Up to 24 | up to £72.90 |
| 25 or over | up to £92.05 |
You can get JSA for up to 182 days (about 6 months). After this you can talk to your work coach about your options.
Your JSA payments will be reduced or stopped if you do not keep to your agreement to look for work and cannot give a good reason.
How to apply for JSA
You can apply online here.
Read more
Find more information at GOV.UK.
This page was last updated in 2025.
- Unemployment insurance in Europe →
Unemployment Insurance in UK
You might also be interested in:
⇒EU social security coordination
⇒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.