One of the conditions of entitlement to unemployment benefits is to accrue a qualifying period of at least 12 months of work as salaried employee within the last 18 months before you first registered with Employment Service.
If you did not complete 12 working months, there are other months other than working months that can be included in the qualifying period:
- Months of compulsory military service – up to six months in which you have served as a soldier in the compulsory service. These months are not included in the reduced 6-month qualifying period due to the Covid crisis.
- Months of volunteering in national service or national-civil service – up to six months in which you were volunteering in national service or national-civil service. The period may only be included for a person who completed a volunteer service period of at least 24 months, or for a woman who served for at least six months and married within 30 days of leaving the service. These months are not included in the reduced 6-month qualifying period due to the Covid crisis.
- Military reserve duty
- Unpaid leave - the first two months of unpaid leave can be included in the qualifying period, in which the employer paid insurance contributions on your behalf.
- Vacation days and holidays - for which salary was paid. However, vacation days redeemed due to severance of an employee-employer relationship are not taken into account in the qualifying period.
- Days of mourning - during the period you have worked, even if the employer did not pay wage for them.
- Sick leave in which you were eligible for sick pay as an employee.
- The period for which you were paid the following benefits by the National Insurance Institute: work injury allowance, maternity allowance or pregnancy bed rest benefit.
- The period for which compensation was paid due to lack of prior layoff notice .
- Work abroad - can be accounted as qualifying period only for those who worked abroad for an Israeli employer under an employment agreement signed in Israel. However, a person who worked in a country that signed a convention with Israel in the unemployment branch (Austria, Netherlands and Sweden), may under special conditions add qualification periods accrued in those countries.
If, during the last 18 months, you did not work for one or more of the reasons listed below, one may extend the 18-month reference period used to examine the qualifying period:
- Vocational training - upon Employment Service's referral or approval - up to a 12-month extension.
- Sickness or accident - for which sick pay was not paid - up to a 6-month extension
- Maternity leave - under Section 6 of Women Labor Law, if maternity allowance was not paid for that period.
- Pregnancy bed rest - if pregnancy bed rest benefit was not paid for that period.
- Unpaid leave after childbirth under Section 7 of Women Labor Law - extension of up to a quarter of the number of months in which you have worked, yet not more than 12 months since the day of birth.
- Absence from work for reasons beyond your control - up to a 1-month extension.