Lecturers, instructors and teachers

Instructors, lecturers and teachers who work as self-employed workers, and whose work has ceased operations following the Corona, may be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Eligibility for unemployment benefits will be examined in accordance with their compliance with the general conditions of entitlement to unemployment benefits, and the additional eligibility conditions listed here.

This page presents a list of special guidelines for this category of employees.

Those who returned to work are asked to notify us. For online notification, click here.

Which instructors, teachers and lecturers may qualify for unemployment benefits?

Any self-employed teacher, instructor or lecturer or anyone employed in the field of training or education, such as university and college lecturers, sport instructors in fitness centers, class teachers, group activities instructors in community centers and the like.

Training occupation - For example, if you are a sports instructor working on a receipts basis in a fitness center, in which you have provided regular trainings for a period of at least 3 months, or if you had a commitment for at least 7 trainings, the months of work will be recognized as training occupation.

Required qualifying period

In order to obtain unemployment benefit, you must accrue 12 months of work within the last 18 months of occupation in training or as a salaried employee.

Due to the Corona crisis, you may receive unemployment benefits if you have a qualifying period of at least 6 or 10 months over the last 18 months - click here to learn more.

If you are missing some months of training occupation to reach 12 months out of the last 18 months, you can replace them with other periods as outlined in this link.

Please note, if you have worked even a single day in a month, this will be regarded as if you had a full month of work. In other words, if the agreement covered a period between September 5 and December 5, this would be recognized as a 4-month period – September, October, November and December.

Registration with Employment Service

After registering, you must follow the instructions of the Employment Service regarding in-person reporting at Employment Service Centers.

How to submit a claim for unemployment benefits to the National Insurance Institute

To shorten the claim's handling time, we ask you to submit to us an online claim for unemployment benefit (BL/1500) through the website.

On the claim form, under the section "main employment, field of occupation", you have to indicate your occupation and add next to it that it is in accordance with Insured People Classification Order. We advise you to sign up to the Personal Service Site, to be able to follow online the status of your claim.

What documents should be attached to the claim?

To unemployment claims submitted for unemployment period starting from 1.7.2020, the following documents must be attached:

• Instructor/teacher/lecturer declared as salaried employee: must make sure that his employer has sent a Form 100 to us, mentioning the date and cause of work stoppage.
  If the employer is unable to issue a Form 100, he must be asked to complete a Form 1514 - Employer authorization of employment period and pay.
  The form needs to be attached to the claim or sent to us through the website.
• Instructor/teacher/lecturer not declared as salaried but covered by the Classification of Insured Persons Order, needs to attach the following documents:
  - Form 806 or 857 for fiscal year 2019 – those who worked without pay slips but with invoices/receipts, should ask the entity they worked with for a 806 or 857 form for 2019, mentioning the amounts deducted for national and health insurance contributions. This is the statement form sent to Income Tax Authority regarding your employment, which is used by the paying agent to set up source deduction of national and health insurance contributions on your behalf.
  - Authorization for fiscal year 2020 - you must ask the agents you have worked with for a written authorization, including a list of all months of employment, and mentioning wage for each month and source deductions for national and health insurance contributions.

Amount of unemployment benefit

For a quick and easy calculation of unemployment benefit according to your income, use our unemployment benefit calculator.
One must enter into the calculator all the sums you were paid by the agents you worked for that same month, as detailed in Form 857.

For more information about benefit rates, click here.

Please note, your income as self-employed will be deducted from your unemployment benefits.
Based on the 857 forms you have sent us, will be determined out of the annual tax assessment, the income from which insurance contributions were deducted as salaried employee, and the income as self-employed. Income as self-employed will be deducted from unemployment benefits over the year.

For guidelines to the self-employed, click here.

Period of eligibility for unemployment benefits

If during the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit, you returned to work part-time, as a self-employed covered by the Classification of Insured Persons Order, you are obligated to notify us.
You have to attach a statement of work start and work termination, and produce the documents according to the options below:

• Authorization from the agent you worked for, including: details about the month of work, level of monthly wage, deductions of insurance contributions and number of days of work.
• Your personal statement regarding the payment you have received and the number of working days each month.

This payment will be deducted from your unemployment benefits. The documents may be sent to us via the website.

Who to contact?