Financial matters

Unemployment benefits (UB)

Purpose
Unemployment benefits provide insured people with an adequate replacement for any loss of income they incur.
The benefits are paid out by the responsible unemployment insurance fund directly to the person concerned.

Who is insured?
People who are in employment (employee) are usually obliged to make UB contributions and are therefore also insured against the financial consequences of unemployment. Employers deduct the UB contributions directly from the salary and pay them to the OASI compensation fund.
The law also stipulates that people who do not make contributions can nevertheless still be insured under certain circumstances (“people exempt from fulfilling the contribution period”).
Under the OASI law, self-employed people are not obliged to make contributions and are therefore not insured!
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Duration of insurance cover
In principle, the insurance cover is tied to being gainfully employed (exception: exemption from fulfilling the contribution period).
Start of insurance cover: following conclusion of compulsory education at the earliest.
End of insurance cover: upon reaching OASI retirement age/early drawing of OASI pension.
The Unemployment Insurance Act recognises the principle of a two-year period. If the conditions for entitlement are met, this period begins. As a rule, the entitlements determined at the start of the period apply for this period.

Insolvency compensation
In the event of an employer becoming insolvent, insolvency compensation covers lost earnings for a maximum of four months. Insolvency compensation is only paid for work that has been carried out. [More information]
You can obtain more information on this at any time from the unemployment insurance funds and the regional employment centres.

Benefits
The “insured salary” is used as the basis for payments. This is usually determined by the unemployment insurance fund based on a person’s income from the last six months.
A flat rate applies for people who are exempt from fulfilling the contribution period.
A daily allowance is calculated from the insured salary (actual or flat rate), which amounts to 70% or 80% of the insured salary depending on personal circumstances.

Temporary earnings - advantages for insured people

Temporary earnings are any income earned either on an employed or self-employed basis while you are unemployed. These temporary earnings must be compensated as is customary for the location and business.
Within the scope of your daily allowances, you are entitled to loss of earnings benefits (70/80%), provided that the income earned is not deemed to be reasonable.

Example (average calculation):
Insured salary: CHF 4,000
Temporary earnings: CHF 1,800
Loss of earnings (100%) CHF 2,200
You will now be paid 70% or 80% of this amount depending on the daily allowance rate.

How you benefit from temporary earnings:

• You remain integrated in the labour market, you do not lose your daily working rhythm, and there are no gaps in your CV.
• Experience shows that it is easier to get a new job if you are already employed
• You acquire new references and make new contacts
• Newly acquired references are extremely helpful when looking for a job, as is a good network of contacts
• You boost your income
• Even a small amount of temporary earnings are worth it
• You use up your available daily allowances less quickly
• You gain new contribution periods, unless the temporary earnings are made in a self-employed capacity