Prerequisites for receiving earnings-related daily allowance while working and being paid

Earned income received during unemployment affects the amount of earnings-related daily allowance, as the amount earnings-related daily allowance is adjusted based on the amount of income. This is called adjusted daily allowance. Adjusted daily allowance equalises the difference in income between full-time employment and part-time employment or short-term work, for example. Adjusted daily allowance can be paid in the following situations: 

• Your daily working hours have been reduced due to a lay-off or you have both full and partial days of lay-off during the same calendar week
• Paid employment, business activities or self-employment last no more than two weeks
• You are working part-time. However, adjusted daily allowance cannot be paid if you choose to work part-time even though your employer would offer you full-time work or if you have agreed to reduce your working hours with your employer, adjusted daily allowance cannot be paid. 
• You have income from part-time business activities or self-employment (the TE Office determines whether the activities are full-time or part-time in nature). 

In order to receive adjusted daily allowance, your working hours must not exceed 80 percent of full-time employment in the sector during a review period of four weeks or one month. A month includes always 21,5 days, so if the normal full working time is 7,5 hours a day, the working time can be a maximum of 129 hours per month (7,5 x 21,5 = 161,25 -> 161,25 x 0,8 = 129). if you work full-time up to two weeks, work part-time or you work shorter days due to lay-off, working hours are allocated to the adjustment period (4 weeks or a month) during which the income is paid. For example, if you start part-time employment in January and the hours you worked in January are not paid until February, the working hours and income are taken into account when calculating your daily allowance for February.

A prerequisite for the payment of adjusted daily allowance is that you work part-time and your employer can monitor your working hours. This is the reason why it is usually not possible to receive adjusted daily allowance, if you work from home on commission pay. You are not entitled to adjusted daily allowance, based on low income alone.

Adjusted daily allowance is paid for five days per week, including workdays. You must be registered as a jobseeker with the TE Office and look for full-time employment.