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Child supplements and exempt amount of earned income have been abolished on 1 April 2024
At the end of last year, Parliament decided on several changes to the Unemployment Security Act. Starting from April, child supplements and the exempt amount of earned income in unemployment security have been abolished.
Child supplements have been abolished
Starting from 1 April 2024, recipients of unemployment security are no longer entitled to child supplements. Child supplements will be paid as before for the period up to 31 March 2024, even if the payment date is after the change takes effect.
Abolishing child supplements will reduce the amount of unemployment allowance on average by 150 euros to 280 euros per month, depending on the number of children.
Until 31 March 2024, the amount of child supplement is:
- €5.84 a day for one child,
- €8.57 a day for two children
- €11.05 a day for three or more children.
The abolition of child supplements will also affect the amount of mobility allowance.
Exempt amount of earned income has been abolished
Exempt amount means the amount you can earn from part-time or gig work without this affecting your earnings-related unemployment allowance. The removal of the exempt amount applies to application periods starting on or after 1 April 2024.
Until 31 March 2024, the exempt amount is 300 euros for application periods of one month and 279 euros for application periods of four weeks. Earnings-related allowance is adjusted by deducting 50% of the part of income that exceeds the exempt amount.
After the exempt amount is abolished, 50% of the earnings before taxes paid during the application period for earnings-related unemployment allowance will reduce the amount of the allowance.
Example after the exempt amount is abolished, with an application period of one month:
You are applying for earnings-related allowance for the period 1–30 April 2024. Your full earnings-related allowance is 70 euros a day. On 15 April 2024, you are paid wages of 500 euros before taxes from working gigs. Your earnings-related allowance is reduced by an amount corresponding to half of your wage income (€250). This amount is divided by the number of workdays in the adjustment period (21.5 days). This amount (€11.60) is deducted from your full daily earnings-related allowance. After the deduction, your earnings-related allowance is €58.40 a day.
Example with the exempt amount of 300 euros still in place, with an application period of one month:
You are applying for earnings-related allowance for the period 1–31 March 2024. Your full earnings-related allowance is 70 euros a day. On 15 March 2024, you are paid wages of 500 euros before taxes from working gigs. The exempt amount of 300 euros is applied to the wages. Your earnings-related allowance is reduced by an amount corresponding to half of your wage income after applying the exempt amount (€100 of €200). This amount is divided by the number of workdays in the adjustment period (21.5 days). This amount (€4.70) is deducted from your full daily earnings-related allowance. After the deduction, your earnings-related allowance is €63.70 a day.
More information
For more information on the abolition of the exempt amount of earned income, see the section on Exempt amount on our website.
