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How one-time payments affect your benefits
As a result of collective agreement negotiations at the beginning of the year, people from various lines of work will receive one-time payments during this spring and summer. If you receive a one-time payment, please report it in your application. We treat these one-time payments the same way we treat normal wages when calculating and paying benefits.
If you have received a one-time payment from full-time work, it will not be deducted from your earnings-related allowance or alternation allowance, even if it is paid to you during unemployment, lay-off or job alternation leave. You are deemed to be working full-time if your working hours exceed 80% of a full-time employee’s maximum working hours.
A one-time payment reduces your earnings-related allowance or alternation allowance only if you have received it from part-time work. In that case, the one-time payment is treated the same way as other wages when paying the adjusted allowance.
Only the part of your income that exceeds the exempt amount will reduce your allowance. The exempt amount is 300 euros for a one-month application period and 279 euros for a four-week application period. The alternation allowance does not have an exempt amount for income.
We take the one-time payment into account in the new calculation of your earnings-related allowance. In other words, a one-time payment increases your earnings-related unemployment allowance the next time your earnings-related allowance is calculated.
Please note that the above does not apply to the coronavirus compensations that, for example, nurses have received from their employers.
