The importance of being a member
When working in Sweden, it is important to be a member of an unemployment insurance fund (in Swedish called "arbetslöshetskassa" or simply "a-kassa"). A membership gives you a certain financial security in case of unemployment.
There are at the moment 25 unemployment insurance funds and our fund has the name "Finans- och Försäkringsbranschens Arbetslöshetskassa". You can become a member in our unemploment fund if you work within the financial or insurance sector.
The unemployment insurance
There are two levels of the unemployment insurance benefit. The basic benefit level can be granted if you become unemployed lacking a membership in an unemployment fund or not having been a member for at least 12 months. The highest amount of the basic benefit is 510 Swedish krona per day.
The higher insurance level can be granted if you become unemployed and at that time have been a member of an unemployment fund for at least 12 months. The highest level of benefit is 1200 Swedish krona per day for the first 100 days and 1000 Swedish krona per day for an additional 200 days.
Unemployment benefit is payed for a maximum of five days a week and has a qualifying period (in Swedish called "Karensdagar") of two days before any payments are made.
The amounts per day, stated above, are before deduction of income tax. Benefits can be granted for 300 days and an additional 150 days if you at the end of the 300 days are the custodian of any child younger than 18 years of age.
Which are the conditions for benefits?
The basic conditions you have to fulfill for either level of benefit are that you are:
- Enrolled as a job-seeker at the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen).
- Able to apply for work and able to work for at least 17 hours per week.
- Unemployed and available to the job-market.
There are other conditions to be met regarding your previous working hours. The last year, before your unemployment began, you are obliged to have worked at least six months and then at least 60 hours per month. There is also a possibility to get benefit if you within the last year have worked six months in a row, and then at least 40 hours per month, rendering a total sum of working hours during those six months amounting to 420 hours or more.
Other circumstances that can affect benefit
The laws and regulations concerning the right to receive benefit and the specific amount in such a case can in some situations be rather complicated and not just limited to the conditions mentioned above. Other factors that may affect are severance pay, part-time work. secondary employment, your own company/business, studies, if you have worked as a contractor, self-dismissal etc. You are more than welcome to contact us if your have any questions regarding membership, benefit regulations etc.
Layoff and short-term work
Layoff and short-term work means that employers can reduce working hours and wages, while employment generally continues as usual.
If you have been laid off, you cannot be considered to be unemployed. During such a period you are not entitled to benefit from us, because you are still at the employer's disposal. This applies regardless of whether you receive pay or not during the layoff. It is only if you become laid off and unemployed part-time or full-time that you can be entitled to benefit.
Short-term work
Short-term work aims to meet the serious crises that affect companies financially. By cutting down on working hours and wages, employees should be able to keep the job, and the company will get back on its feet faster when the crisis is over. The state then goes in and subsidizes part of the wage cost.
Short-term layoff
Short-term layoff means that the employer's salary costs can be halved by the state accounting for a larger part of it. This construction may be similar to short-term work, but the degree of subsidy is greatly increased, i.e. to 75 percent. The employee then receives more than 90 percent of the salary, which means that employees generally retain their pay despite reduced working hours. The purpose of this measure is to save Swedish jobs.
Becoming unemployed after short-term work/layoff
Should one become unemployed after the short-term work or the short-term layoff, the unemployment fund can skip this period of time when the benefit is to be calculated. The benefit is then calculated on the salary you had before the short-term work / short-term layoff. If the time with short-term work / short-term layoff is needed to fulfill the so-called working condition, it may be included and then it is the time for which you received a salary that is included in the working condition.
Technichal issues older iPhones
Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to log in to the portals Mina Sidor or Mitt Medlemskap with an older iPhone or iPad with operating system version iOS 12 or earlier. This problem occurs with both browsers Chrome and Safari. At present, less than 2% have these older mobile devices and the applications will unfortunately not be rebuilt to handle these problems. If it is not possible to update your phone / tablet (depending on the model), and you do not have the possibility to get a newer phone / tablet, we recommend that you use a computer instead.
Web portal for applying for benefit
"Mina Sidor" is a digital service, which gives you as a job-seeking member many opportunities. Here you can:
- Apply for unemployment benefit completely digital.
- Upload supplementary documents.
- Send and receive messages.
- Read letters and messages from the unemployment fund.
- Report time.
- See your payouts.
- You can also receive notifications via text message (SMS) and / or e-mails that there are new messages awaiting in Mina Sidor.
You can only log in to "Mina Sidor" using the electronic identification "BankID".
Web portal to manage your membership
"Mitt Medlemskap" is a web portal where you, as a member of our unemployment fund, can see information regarding your membership. This also applies if your membership is terminated or if you have submitted an application for which you have not yet received a reply.
Possibilities in "Mitt Medlemskap"
- View the status of your membership.
- Get an overview of your payments and membership time.
- Update contact information, payment method and selected communication method.
- Send messages to a case worker.
- Get answers to the most common questions.
- Choose communication method with us at the unemployment fund.
If you choose postal communication, then news, decision letters and messages will be send through regular post to your home address. If you have the service for digital communication/mail called "Kivra", then all communications will end up there and you will get a notification from Kivra in the way that you have chosen in that service.
If you have chosen "Mitt Medlemskap" as communication channel, then you have to specify whether you want to be notified either through e-mail or text message (SMS).
You can only log in to "Mitt Medlemskap" using the electronic identification "BankID".