The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) recognizes the contributory unemployment benefit (known as unemployment) for a certain period of time and with a rule in which for each year worked, four months of unemployment correspond. Now, workers should know that by requesting this aid all contributions accumulated up to that point will be consumed. In addition, the days of contributions that exceed the minimum of a section are not saved, which will cause the worker to lose that excess when generating future rights.
This is explained in article 269 of the General Law of Social Security (consult in this BOE), which establishes that the duration of the benefit “will depend on the periods of paid employment in the six years prior to the legal situation of unemployment.” The rule itself explains that, to determine this duration, “all contributions that have not been computed for the recognition of a prior right will be taken into account.”
In this way, if an unemployed person decides to apply for unemployment, they will not be able to save any leftover contributions for the future. That is to say, what happens is that the system uses all the available history of the last six years and, so to speak, resets the counter to zero at the time the aid is recognized. In fact, the law explains that the contributions that generated a benefit “may not be counted for the recognition of a subsequent right, at a contributory or assistance level.” When we say assistance, we are referring to subsidies, such as contribution insufficiency.
How many days are charged based on work
The SEPE website explains that the duration of unemployment depends on certain sections and the number of days contributed in the last six years. This would be the scale according to article 269.1 of the General Social Security Law:
- From 360 to 539 days of contributions: 120 days of benefit.
- From 540 to 719 days of contributions: 180 days of benefit.
- From 720 to 899 days of contributions: 240 days of benefit.
- From 900 to 1,079 days of contributions: 300 days of benefit.
- From 1,080 to 1,259 days of contributions: 360 days of benefit.
- From 1,260 to 1,439 days of contributions: 420 days of benefit.
- From 1,440 to 1,619 days of contributions: 480 days of benefit.
- From 1,620 to 1,799 days of contributions: 540 days of benefit.
- From 1,800 to 1,979 days of contributions: 600 days of benefit.
- From 1,980 to 2,159 days of contributions: 660 days of benefit.
- From 2,160 days of contributions: 720 days of benefit (the maximum limit).
To understand it better, we are going to give an example in which an employee with 500 days of contributions falls into the first bracket and receives 120 days of unemployment (four months). The 140 days that you have worked above the required minimum of 360 days are completely exhausted in this recognition. A worker with 1,500 days of contributions remains in the range of 1,440-1,619 days and has access to 480 days of benefits (16 months). Anyone who accumulates 2,160 days or more reaches the limit and receives the maximum 720 days (two years), but any contribution above that figure is also exhausted when the aid is recognized.
The limit is in the reached section
The maximum duration of unemployment is 720 days (two years of unemployment) for those who have contributed 2,160 days or more, and as the rule explains, that contribution time used will be invalidated for the future. If a maximum number of days is reached and there are still pending contributions that do not reach the next section, the SEPE sweeps away that history when granting unemployment.
Therefore, collecting unemployment after chaining several temporary contracts can be money in the short term, but taking into account that it reduces to zero the days that will be available later to configure a new benefit.
Finally, when unemployment runs out without the unemployed person having found a job, the SEPE allows access to the so-called unemployment benefits, as regulated by article 274 of the General Social Security Law. Now, not all unemployed people can access them, since they are assistance aid, that is, for working people with lack of income.