People who are collecting unemployment benefits (unemployment) and start working must notify the State Public Employment Service (SEPE). At that moment, the contributory benefit will be paralyzed and the worker will begin to contribute for a new one.
If in this new job (or the sum of several) you manage to contribute 360 days or more without having resumed the previous unemployment, you will acquire the right to a new benefit. But what happens to the old paralyzed benefit? Is it lost? This conflict is where the term “right of option” comes into play.
What is the right of option on unemployment?
The right of option arises when a worker stops his unemployment benefit, begins to work for a period equal to or greater than 360 uninterrupted days (without collecting unemployment benefits in between) and acquires the right to a new benefit. At this point, the worker must choose between resuming the previous unemployment or requesting a new one with the new contributions generated.
As its name indicates, it is an “option”: when choosing one benefit, the other normally disappears, so the worker must know how to calculate which one is best for him or her. It is regulated in articles 269.3 and 272.1 c of the General Social Security Law (available in this BOE).
What are the two options offered by SEPE?
In the event of having to decide upon becoming unemployed again, the worker must choose in writing one of these two options within a maximum period of 10 days from the date the new benefit is approved:
- Collect old unemployment: In the case of resuming the paralyzed unemployment benefit, the worker will once again collect the same amount that he had been receiving and for the time he had left until it was exhausted. New contributions generated by the last job will be completely lost and will not be used for a future strike.
- Collect a new unemployment benefit: The worker requests the new benefit generated by his last 360 days (or more) of contributions, with the new bases and percentages. If you choose this, the old unemployment that you had left to spend is permanently lost.
How to know which option is more beneficial
At this point it is important to do numbers. It will be more advantageous to collect the paralyzed unemployment benefit when the sum of the time and the amount remaining exceed what the new unemployment benefits offer. It must be remembered that the minimum to generate a new benefit is 360 days of contributions, which gives the right to 4 months of unemployment (during the first 180 days of unemployment, 70% of the regulatory base is collected and from day 181, 50%).
To understand it better, let’s take an example, in which Eva was collecting unemployment benefits of 900 euros per month and still had 18 months left to collect (a total of 16,200 euros pending). Get a job earning a little less and contribute uninterruptedly for 1 year (360 days). At the end of the contract, the SEPE gives you the choice:
- Option A (old unemployment): Resume your 18 months at 900 euros (16,200 euros). Lose the recent listed year.
- Option B (New unemployment): Request new unemployment for the year worked. Only 4 months correspond to about 560 euros per month (2,240 euros). Lose the old 18 months.
In this case, Option A is clearly more advantageous, since even if you lose a year of recent contributions, you recover a much higher unemployment rate. However, if Eva only had 1 month of old unemployment left to collect, then it would be a good idea for her to jump to Option B.
The exception of discontinuous fixed
There is a very important special rule for discontinuous permanent workers. If this type of worker is in the same situation and chooses to resume the old unemployment that was paralyzed, the new contributions are NOT lost. Unlike the rest of the workers, the discontinued permanent worker does save these new days of contributions so that they are taken into account when requesting a benefit in the future.
What happens to the right of option if I contribute for less than 360 days?
The right of option only arises when it is quoted for 360 days or more. In other words, by not reaching that minimum (one year), this concept would not come into play, because the worker has not generated the right to a new unemployment benefit and, therefore, there is nothing to choose from.
Workers who, after an employment contract, contribute for less than one year, must request the State Public Employment Service to resume the old benefit. New days worked are not lost; They will simply be saved and accumulated for the future until reaching 360 days of contributions.
In short, if the worker interrupts unemployment benefits to work one year or more continuously, he will have the right of option. If that job is listed below the year, you will resume your old unemployment and accumulate the new days for later.