Changes to unemployment benefits as of Friday 1st November - New measures which are part of the reform to unemployment benefits in France will come into effect on Friday November 1st. Here are the following changes reported.
Indemnities will be calculated differently with six months of work required over the last 24 months in order be entitled to benefits. This has increased compared to the current four-month period over the last 28. The exception to this will be for over 53-year old’s where the reference period will remain 36 months.
As a result, the minimum duration of compensation also increases from four to six months. The maximum duration remains two years for those under 53 years, two and a half years for the 53-55 years and three years for the over 55 years.
Until now, if a job-seeker worked for a minimum of one month (or 150 hours), their indemnity period was extended all the same. From now on, it will also take at least six months to benefit, which in practice amounts to removing the principle of renewing rights.
Created in 2014, renewals today represent a quarter of the opening of rights. These include young people who multiply short-term contracts (fixed-term or temporary assignment of less than one month), often with the same employer who re-employs them. According to Unédic, the measure will lead to a reduction of 30,000 the monthly number of rights openings.
All rights opened and associated with a contract end date prior to November 1, mainly renewals, will remain on the previous regulations.
A reduction of compensation for high income. Employees who had an income of more than 4,500 euros gross per month (about 3,500 euros net) will see their compensation reduced by 30% from the 7th month, with a minimum of 2,261 euros net monthly. The ceiling for maximum compensation will remain at € 6,615 net.
The first affected, will be recipients who lost their job after November 1st. Employees aged 57 or over will not be affected by the measure.
According to Unédic, job-seekers who lost a salary above 4,500 euros represent about 4% of the beneficiaries receiving compensation. From the end of 2020, the reduction would affect each month from 1 000 to 2 000 people.
Resignation rights and independent workers. Macron's campaign promise, unemployment compensation will be open to those who resign after having worked in the same company for the last five years and having a project of professional reconversion or creation / takeover of a company. Before resigning, the employee will have to ask for a professional development advice (CEP) and then send a joint commission (unions / employers) a request for certification "of the real and serious character" of his project. It will examine in particular "the relevance of the identified training" and its employment prospects or, for a company, the "financing needs" and the "technical and human means" envisaged.
Once the certificate has been obtained, the employee will have six months to submit an application for an allowance to Pôle emploi, who will be in charge of controlling the actual implementation of the project. The self-employed will benefit from a lump sum allowance (800 euros per month for six months) in case of liquidation. The professional activity must have generated a minimum income of 10,000 euros per year over the last two years before liquidation.
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