wagon ropes

My question is 'Does it exist?' I have read a lot of stories of late about the difficulties Spanish families are having since their breadwinner has lost his job. Even to the extent of having to go to Charities for food!

In England if you lose your job you 'sign on' and generally get plenty of State support to keep you going. This includes immigrants as well.

If this is not the case in Spain then I think that anyone thinking of coming down here to earn a living must take this into account.

greg

I saw a table in a Spanish newspaper which showed how many days you needed to work before being able to benefit from the system... I will see if I can find that and get back you. Maybe some others here know..

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anis

I think it is only paid for a limited amount of time, not as UK, which could explain the charities 'ropes mentions above.
I believe I had to contribute for a year before I could claim anything but may be wrong
( I often am !! )

hippyshake

My understanding is you have to pay in for a minimum of a year and you only get dole money for a limited period (and a maximum of one and a half years).

That applies if you are a legally contracted EMPLOYEE. If you are self-employed and paying social security, you get nothing!!! Unfair - oh yesss, although I think it´s the same in the UK - self employed people are discriminated against there as well.

Beachcomber

... except that in the UK a self-employed person's social security contribution is a fraction of what it is here.

Toni

i worked from Feb 2006 until Sept 2008 and i am entitled to 300 days dole at 70% (not sure if that percentage drops after a few months). And as i understand it, when thats up thats it! There is another thread about this and benefits in the legal section of the forum.

Leisure2000

Not sure how this works in Spain overall maybe different provinces have different rules, but my wife was made redundant having worked for a Spanish company for 3 years.

She was entitled to an unemployment allowance for 12 months and here in Estepona, Malaga they have bands of payments. I do not know what these qualifying bands are any more but at the time she was out of work she was receiving the maximum payment which was around 600 euros a month, even though she was earning nearly 2,000 euros a month. They have differing levels depending on what your income was.

You are also entitled to a severance/redundancy payout from your employer, assuming he hasn't closed down and done a runner

I am glad they do not hand out money here like the UK, it would be full of people sat around doing nothing, the UK really has got out of hand with its benefits and needs to start pulling the reigns in on it's free handouts.

I am not sure how Social Security works in the UK for self employed people, here you pay around 240 euros a month this gives you, your spouse and children full medical cover with the state, plus it also contributes towards your state Spanish pension, although I have been told that isn't very much. For those drawing salaries and wages you also get far more rebates here than you do in the UK when completing end of year tax returns.

sparklyscotty

Hi guys,

Your social security benefit is directly related to the amount of time (and money) you have paid into the system working legally in Spain. The longer you work, the longer the benefits last. The unemployment is normally around 60% of your average paycheck from the last few months.

"That applies if you are a legally contracted EMPLOYEE. If you are self-employed and paying social security, you get nothing!!! Unfair - oh yesss, although I think it´s the same in the UK - self employed people are discriminated against there as well."

As I understand it, you DO still get unemployment if you are autonomo (self employed) but yes, it is less. One way to subsidize this is to make sure you have a good business bank account. Banks such as Banesto will match your unemployment payout for certain amount of time.

Angela

Leisure2000

Hi Angela

I would say that anyone wanting to know the correct answer to this needs to check up in their local area as rules on unemployment benefit must vary going by what you are saying.

As mentioned above we have had personal experience of this my wife was made redundant from a full time contracted job, in fact several people did. Some worked there up to 10 years but everyone was only entitled to 1 year of unemployment. This amount is also capped the highest entitlement was 600 euros per month regardless of how much was earned. I very much doubt that they will pay 60% of any earnings, can you imagine some of the payouts to the big earners in the property game that have been made redundant?

If you are self employed you get nothing other than the option to suspend your payments. In their eyes you are still employed, you just haven't got yourself any work for whatever reason.

I find that very strange what you say about Banesto, I have heard of things like this when linked to mortgages where you get loan insurance in case of unemployment but I can't imagine them just giving you a monthly pay cheque to match unemployment benefit. If that's a real benefit at Banesto, I'm changing my bank but I think there will be a lot of small print and conditions attached to it.

On top of unemployment though there is the severance pay that an employer has to pay.

But as I said above I can only comment on the situation here, other areas of Spain I am not qualified to comment...

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sparklyscotty

Hi,

To be honest, I didn't think about regional variations, but I suppose given that this is Spain I should have.

Our local Banesto branch recently started a campaign targetted at female business owners, so perhaps the unemployment matching was part of that. It certainly made me sign up! Worth asking at some of your local banks to see if they offer something similar.

As far as the 60% payout, I suppose if you are earning mega bucks then you are paying mega bucks in income tax so maybe that is why they can do it for some?

Speaking of bizarre and possibly regional differences, is it the same in Malaga, that you only have 15 days from being let go to finalize your claim at the doll office, and the doll office only grants appointments from 12 days after your departure date from work?

My partner was given an appt 15 days after he was made redundant, and when he missed it (read the slip wrong - doh) he was told 'sorry, no redundancy pay now.'

Angela