What to do if I am laid off?

Topics

• Income security
• Lay-off

You can also apply for earnings-related daily allowance if you are laid off. From the point of view of the Unemployment Security Act, a laid off person is unemployed, so nearly all rules concerning unemployed persons are also directly applicable to laid off persons.

Register in the TE Office

You should register in the TE Office as an unemployed jobseeker on your first day of lay-off at the latest. That is important, because you can only receive earnings-related daily allowance after you have registered as an unemployed jobseeker in the TE Office. If you do not register, you will receive no unemployment benefit. The easiest way to register is on the website of the TE Office. You cannot have the registration in force retroactively, so remember to register on time.

Send an application for daily allowance

When two weeks have passed, you can send your first application for daily allowance to us. The most convenient way to do that is in the OmaYTK service. The service will help and guide you in filling out the application and adding the required attachments.

When you enter the first day of lay-off in the application, OmaYTK will propose an application period ending two weeks later on Sunday. You should follow the application period proposed by OmaYTK, that way the processing of your application will be more straightforward and you will receive your money sooner.

If your lay-off continues, you should apply for daily allowance in periods of either four weeks or one month. Remember to keep your jobseeking in force in the TE Office.

Please also remember that you can only apply for daily allowance for a period of three months retroactively, so you should send your application on time!

No worries

We will process your application for daily allowance as soon as possible. If essential attachment are missing from your application, we will ask for them from you right away.

Some rules for unemployment security

There are certain requirements and obstacles related to receiving earnings-related daily allowance. When you apply for daily allowance, we will check them on your behalf.

The most important requirement for the right to receive earnings-related daily allowance is that you are a member of an unemployment fund and that you have fulfilled the 26-week condition regarding employment before the unemployment during your membership in the fund.

Earnings-related daily allowance is intended to secure your livelihood during unemployment or lay-off. Hence earnings-related daily allowance may not necessarily be paid if you have other income. Earnings-related daily allowance is also intended to support your jobseeking. The TE Office will help you with that. If you neglect jobseeking, the TE Office may deem that you are no longer entitled to receive unemployment benefit. Typically the TE Office does not actively offer its services to laid off persons, but you need to follow the instructions given by the TE Office nevertheless.