In October, unemployment security has been on the agenda due to the changes proposed by the Government. In this article, in addition to the above, we will highlight a few other topics that have been topical in October.

Checking the limit for the rest of the year on your tax card

At the end of the year, some of our members may have a situation where the annual limit on their tax card is exceeded. In this case, the additional percentage of the tax card will be used in the payment of benefits paid by the fund.

Therefore, we recommend that you check the accrual of your own tax card. You can check the accrual conveniently in Openetti under Income and tax details > Tax details.

If you wish, you can submit a new revised tax card the benefits to the fund.

Government proposal submitted to Parliament

On 12.10.2023, the Government submitted a proposal to reform the Unemployment Security Act to Parliament (HE73/2023). This Government proposal includes some of the suggestions for reforming unemployment security in accordance with the Government Programme. In the proposal, the changes would concern the extension and monetary valuation of the employment condition of employees, the removal of the standard entitlement, the phasing of holiday compensation, the extension of the waiting period and the abolition of child increase.

The Government has also submitted to Parliament a proposal (HE75/2023) according to which the National Pensions Index would be frozen so that index adjustments would not be made for certain benefits, such as earnings-related unemployment allowance, in 2024–2027.

The proposals based on the Government Programme concerning grading the amount of earnings-related unemployment allowance, abolishing the employment condition accruing from pay subsidy work and abolishing certain age-related dispensations will be submitted to Parliament in a separate government proposal in 2024. A legislative amendment concerning the abolition of the job alternation leave system will also be presented to Parliament later.

Applying for daily allowance during unpaid autumn leave

In October, some of our members had an unpaid autumn leave included in their employment relationship, i.e. a period comparable to a lay-off. Under certain conditions, a full-time employee may also be entitled to earnings-related daily allowance during unpaid autumn holidays.

We have published an article on the topic on our website, which you can read via the button below.

Child increase in 2024

An additional increase was made to child increase for unemployment security in 2023, which will be removed at the beginning of 2024. The child increase will therefore decrease by 25-48 euros per month, depending on the number of children.

Parliament is also considering two legislative cnanges that, if implemented, will affect child increases next year. The Government has proposed that index increases would be frozen for the period 2024–2027, as a result of which the usual increase in child increase would not be made at the turn of the year based on the national pension index.

In addition, the Government has proposed that the payment of the child increase to unemployment security would be abolished as of 1.4.2023

However, the drafting of legislation on the index increase and the abolition of the child increase is still ongoing.