Unemployment benefits: how they will be paid, upcoming changes

The Greek government is making radical changes to unemployment benefits that will be trialled this year.

New manual will be paid to those who become unemployed after the changes are introducedand not to those who are already unemployed. Final decisions will be made in the fall, and the new benefit will be tested for 10,000 unemployed people until the end of 2024, after which it will be introduced everywhere.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Niki Kerameos, speaking on Parapolitics radio a few days ago, announced the implementation a fairer and more beneficial unemployment benefit system. As Ms. Kerameos noted, the aim of the measures that will be implemented in the system is to create incentives to find work.

“The idea is that at the beginning of the unemployment period the benefit should be higher, it should be paid first. However, it should then be reduced to provide an incentive to find work.“, – the minister noted, explaining that lThe logic is that the unemployed should receive more at the beginning, during the difficult period when unemployment begins, and then this amount is reduced to encourage him to find employment.

Let us recall that today the unemployment benefit is 55% of the minimum wage. With the adoption of the new plan, the benefit for the first 3 months of its payment will be 580 euros, and on top of this amount, it will be increased from 10% to 30%, depending on the size of the unemployed person's salary (taking into account the time when the citizen worked and his work experience).

In addition to this “basic” amount, an additional payment will be made bonus, depending on the length of service and salary of the employee being dismissed. In particular, the amount that will be provided, based on today's minimum wage and will be the same for everyone, will be structured as follows:

• First 3 months: 70% of the minimum wage, 580 euros.
• For the second quarter: 60% of the minimum wage, 498 euros.
• For the 3rd quarter: 55% of salary, 456 euros.
• For the fourth quarter: 45% of salary, 373 euros.

Total amount on on a twelve-month basis remains the same and amounts to approximately 7,000 euros.

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