What office of the Employment Service of Catalonia do I need to visit to register as a job seeker?
To register as a job-seeker, you should go to the Job Centre (Oficina de Treball) of the Government of Catalonia (la Generalitat); these Centres are organised by postcode, and you should go to the one that covers your postcode area. You can send us your postcode and we will tell you which is the right Generalitat Job Centre for you; alternatively, you can find out for yourself by going to the website of the Catalan Employment Service (Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya - SOC).
I am a self-employed worker. How can I go about getting my remaining unemployment benefit paid as a lump sum for use as business capital?
Self-employed people wishing to go into business and to make an application for having any remaining unemployment benefit paid as a lump sum for investment in the new business ('capitalització de l'atur') should enquire at their nearest Catalan-Government Employment Office (Oficina de Treball): they will tell you there what documents you need to make the application. To find out which office covers your area, please see the list of offices available on the website of the Catalan Employment Service .
The legislation on these options is also available in the form of the Fourth Transitory Provision (Disposició transitòria quarta) of Law 45/2002 (published in the BOE (State Gazette) issue 298 of 13/12/2002), which deals with having one's remaining unemployment benefit paid as a lump sum for investment purposes; this information is also available on the website of the Employment Department.
I am a foreigner, living and working in Spain (with up-to-date residency and work permits), but I have become unemployed. Am I entitled to unemployment benefit?
Foreign workers are entitled to unemployment benefit in the same way as Spanish workers, providing that they are legal residents in Spain.
Before applying for unemployment benefit, you must register with the public employment services as a job-seeker. If you are not already registered, you must do so when you submit your application for unemployment benefit, within 15 days of becoming unemployed.
If you do not register within 15 days, either your right to unemployment benefit will not be recognised or the number of days that elapsed from the time you became entitled to it to the time you finally registered will be discounted for the purposes of calculating the benefit.
Source: SPOE
What are the requirements for being paid unemployment benefit?
To receive unemployment benefit through the social-security contributory system, the following requirements must be met:
1. You must be registered with the Social Security, and you must be either currently registered as an active worker or, despite not actually working at the time (for medical or other such reasons), be registered as "equivalent to a currently active worker" ('situació assimilada a l'alta').
2. You must be in a situation regarded under the regulations as being a situation of unemployment. This situation can arise under many circumstances: when your employment is involuntarily terminated or suspended; when it ends as a result of your employer dying, retiring, or closing his or her business for reasons of disability; when the time agreed for your employment comes to an end, or when the work or service for which you were employed is completed, etc.
3. You must be registered with the Spanish Public Service for Employment (the 'Servei Públic d'Ocupació Estatal') as a job-seeker, showing your readiness to seek employment actively and to accept suitable job offers by signing the 'activity undertaking' (compromís d'activitat).
4. At the time your duty to pay your Social Security contributions ceases, you must have been paying Social Security contributions for at least 360 days (working days) over the course of the six years before the situation regarded under the regulations as a situation of unemployment arises.
However, the minimum period over which you must have paid Social Security contributions rises to 720 days if the contributory benefit applied for is the benefit due under the Social Security's 'Special Agrarian Scheme', or if you have been shown as registered with the Social Security as a self-employed worker or freelance worker before your last post in the employment of an employer.
If you have worked fewer than 360 days over the course of the six years before you entered the situation regarded under the regulations as being a situation of employment, you may still be entitled to unemployment benefit if you meet the other requirements, in which case the duration of the benefit entitlement depends on they number of days you have worked and on whether you have family responsibilities (the minimum work-time required if you have family responsibilities is three months, while it is six months if you do not).
5. You must not have reached the ordinary retirement age, unless you have not accumulated the number of working days with payment of Social-Security contributions required for entitlement to unemployment benefit.
6. You must make your application for unemployment benefit.
Source: SPOE
Having finished my university studies , I've been looking for work for a long time with no success, and I've never worked. Am I entitled to any financial support for being unemployed?
The Spanish unemployment-benefit system covers workers who have lost their jobs for reasons not attributable to them, with the intention of alleviating the difficulties that arise through losing their income. The system also covers workers who have never worked before in Spain but who find themselves in one of the following situations:
- People just released from prison.
- Emigrant workers returning to Spain (provided that they have lived and worked abroad).
- People who have lost their entitlement to a disability pension because their health improved.
So if you have never worked, you can only get unemployment benefit if you fall into one of these categories and meet the other requirements set down in law.
Source: SPOE
What are the requirements for getting my remaining unemployment benefit paid as a lump sum for use as business capital?
You must meet these requirements:
- At the time you make your application for the lump-sum payment, you must be unemployed and receiving contributory unemployment benefit.
- You must have at least three months' benefit remaining to be collected.
- You must not have been granted a lump-sum payment of the same nature in the last four years.
- The activity you are intending to undertake must be organised as a self-employed activity, and you must register as such with the Social Security, or as a stable worker-member of an up-and-running working cooperative (you must not have had a previous relationship of employment or business with the same cooperative that lasted more than 24 months).
- You must not have started that activity when you apply for your lump-sum benefit payment.
- If you took court action over the termination of the employment that prompted your entitlement to unemployment benefit, you can only apply for your lump-sum payment when the court has reached a decision on your case.
Source: SPOE
What income-related circumstances are compatible with collecting unemployment benefit?
Contributory unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance can still be claimed in these situations:
- Part-time work (in which case the proportion corresponding to the time worked is deducted from the amount of the benefit paid).
- Partial retirement pensions or Social Security pensions or financial benefits that were compatible with the employment from which the entitlement originally stemmed.
- Pensions recognised and paid by a State other than Spain.
- Any social-work schemes that the State Public Service for Employment may demand of people collecting unemployment benefit, since they do not involve any relationship of employment between the unemployed person and the body providing those work schemes.
- Any legal compensation sum due from the termination of an employment contract. 'Legal compensation sum' means a payment stipulated as compulsory in the Workers' Statute (or in subsequent amendments to it), or a settlement sum ordered by the Courts; however, sums received as a result of being stipulated in a covenant, agreement or contract cannot be regarded as such.
- Grants and public assistance to help with travel, accommodation and maintenance expenses, provided for attending occupational training schemes envisaged in the National Training and Occupation-Integration Plan or other schemes funded by the State Public Service for Employment.
- Holding remunerated posts in public service or trade-union posts involving a part-time commitment.
- Social Security benefits due for dependants.
If the benefit involved is unemployment assistance, it must be borne in mind that, in all the above-mentioned circumstances, whether the income is compatible with continuing to collect the assistance depends on the claimant's income from all sources still failing to amount to 75% of the minimum wage set for all sectors (including any partial-retirement pension), and the claimant still bearing any family responsibilities that were taken into account in determining the entitlement.
Source: SPOE
