You may be entitled to unemployment benefit if you have worked as a salaried employee and came out of the labor circuit, provided that you meet all conditions of entitlement.
You can check your eligibility for unemployment benefits with this unemployment benefit eligibility simulator.
There are 5 conditions to meet in order to obtain unemployment benefits:
First condition - Residency
You must be an Israeli residentA person whose life is centered in Israel. Criteria for determining this include: Israel is your permanent place of residence, where your family resides, where your children go to school, your primary place of work, or where you are studying. or a temporary resident (you hold a permanent or temporary staying permit).
Second condition - Age
You have turned 20, and have not reached the age of 67.
Those who are under 20, may be entitled to unemployment benefits in special cases - for more information, click here.
Third condition - Work termination
You may be entitled to unemployment benefits if you went on unpaid leave, were laid off or stopped working voluntarily.
Please note that the ground of work stoppage (layoff or voluntary termination) influences the starting date of payment - to learn more about grounds for work termination, click here.
Departure on unpaid leave
Due to the war relaxations were granted to those send on unpaid leave at their employer's initiative (an employer's certificate must be attached to the online form) for the period between 7.10.23 and 30.12.23:
- The period of unpaid leave qualifying to unemployment benefit has been shortened to 14 days at least (instead of 30 days so far).
- Those put on unpaid leave are not required to use their remaining paid vacation leave due by their employer, in order to start receiving unemployment benefits.
Please note that those who took unpaid leave voluntarily (even for justified reasons) - will not be entitled to unemployment benefits.
Fourth condition - Reporting to Employment Service
To be eligible for unemployment benefits, you have to report to Employment Service.
For information about public reception at the bureaus of Employment Service during the war please visit the website of the Employment Service.
It is important to report to Employment Service soon after work termination, even if you willingly stopped working, in order to realize your right to unemployment benefit.
You can register online on the website of Employment Service.
After registration, you have to follow the
Employment Service's guidelines related to in-person reporting in centers of the Employment Service.
Those who registered in the Employment Service's website from 1.4.21 onwards, are required to report in person to the bureau nearest their place of residence within 14 days of their online registration, to avoid prejudice to their entitlement to unemployment benefits.
Fifth condition - Qualifying period
You have accrued a qualifying period as salaried employee of at least 12 months out of the last 18 months preceding your first registration with Employment Service.
The qualifying period will only include the months of work between the age of 18 and 67. Working months are not required to be consecutive nor from a single employer.
Those laid off or put on unpaid leave at the employers initiative in the period between 7.10.23 and 30.12.23 - the qualifying period the they need to accrue will be cut down to 6 months within the 18 months preceding registration to Employment Service (instead of 12 months).
Please note, in the calculation of these 6 months the months of regular military service will not be accounted for.
Those receiving a disability pension from the National Insurance - the qualifying period is cut down to 3 months.
Important information,
- Working a part of the month is considered a full month of work. In other words, even one day of work in the month will be deemed as a full working month.
- If you did not accrued the required amount of working months, there are other months other than working month that may be included in the qualifying period - click here to learn more.
- Salaried employees whose employer is not resident of Israel or who work in a diplomatic or consular service of a foreign country, can be eligible for unemployment benefit despite the fact that their employee is note liable to pay insurance contribution on their behalf, and they pay insurance contributions on their own.
Who is not eligible for unemployment benefit?
The workers listed below are not covered with unemployment insurance, and are thereby unable to qualify for unemployment benefits:
- Self-employed workers
- Controlling shareholders in a closed corporation - ineligible for unemployment benefit even if they work as a salaried employee in that corporation.
- Members of a kibbutz or cooperative settlement - ineligible for unemployment benefit, unless they are working as salaried employees outside or if the kibbutz employs them as salaried employees.