When becoming unemployed, a frontier worker must turn to the employment office of their country of residence and apply for benefits there; in this case, they are fully subject to the control measures established in the country of residence. You may also register as unemployed at the employment office of your most recent country of employment.

After the United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2021, the European Union social security coordination principles are not applied to applicants of Estonian unemployment insurance benefits who started working in the United Kingdom for the first time after 31 December 2020, and who had never worked in the United Kingdom before.

How is the length of unemployment insurance taken into account when calculating unemployment benefit?

Unemployment benefit is calculated by taking into account periods of unemployment insurance completed in all Member States (plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland).

For example, to get unemployment insurance benefit in Estonia, you must have at least 12 months of unemployment insurance in the 36 months before you became unemployed. If you have also accumulated unemployment insurance periods while working in other Member States (e.g., Finland and Sweden), all these periods are added together. This means that you are entitled to Estonian unemployment insurance benefits even if you have completed the required 12 months of unemployment insurance by working in several countries.

Also, the length of time you have been covered by unemployment insurance determines how long you are entitled to benefits. If you worked in Finland for 12 months, in Ireland for 24 months and in Estonia for another 24 months before becoming unemployed, you have 12 + 24 + 24 = 60 months of unemployment insurance and you are entitled to up to 210 days of benefits under the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Act.

You must submit a U1 form to join periods of unemployment insurance in another Member State when claiming unemployment benefit. The form is issued by the labour market or unemployment insurance institutions of the Member States, which shall enter the length of time you have been insured in that country on the form. It is recommended that you always take the U1 form with you from your local authority before leaving one Member State for another. 

Check the information on how to apply for a U1 form in the Member States

You can also apply for a form later – either yourself or through the unemployment office – but it takes longer. If you want to apply for a form through the Unemployment Insurance Fund, you need to submit an application for confirmation of periods abroad, which can be completed on a digital device or on paper.

Include all the documents proving that you work in that Member State (employment contracts, payslips, employer, tax office certificates, etc.).

Which salary is used to calculate the benefit

It is up to each Member State to decide who is entitled to compensation, how much and for how long, on the basis of the provisions of national law. 

If your last country of employment has been a foreign country, but you decide to turn back to Estonia and commence job searching here, then in determining the benefit (if you meet the criteria of a frontier worker or permanent resident), the size of your unemployment insurance benefit is calculated, considering the remuneration earned in the foreign country.

Example. For example, you worked in Finland with a monthly salary of EUR 2,000. Upon the termination of the fixed-term employment relationship, you returned to Estonia and applied for unemployment insurance benefit here, since you maintained your focus of interests in Estonia while working in Finland, and Estonia is your permanent place of residence.
Your benefit is calculated on the basis of the salary earned in Finland, considering the upper limit of the benefit, which is triple the amount of the average daily remuneration of one calendar day in Estonia in the previous year, and any amount exceeding this is not taken into account.

If your last place of employment was in Estonia, and you worked abroad before that, your benefit is calculated on the basis of remuneration paid in Estonia, from which unemployment insurance premiums have been withheld, in the nine months preceding the past three months of working.

To find the amount of the benefit, the amount of remuneration of the nine months preceding the past three months of working that has been paid out in Estonia and has been subject to unemployment insurance premiums, is divided by 270.

Example. For example, you worked in Finland in January and February of 2020 (two months). From March to December of the same year (10 months), you worked in Estonia. Since the calculation of the size of the benefit only takes into account the amount of remuneration of the nine months preceding the past three months of working that has been paid out in Estonia, then in your case, the basis is remuneration earned in Estonia from March to September 2020, and from November to December 2019.

Application for U1 form for periods completed in Estonia

For Estonian unemployment insurance periods, you can request the U1 form from the Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. You can fill in the application on a digital device or on paper.

Certificate U1 confirms the length of insurance completed in Estonia on the basis of the unemployment insurance database.

In some Member States, periods of employment for which no insurance periods have accrued are also taken into account when unemployment benefits are granted (for a person who has worked in Estonia, periods of employment up to 31 December 2001 are confirmed as periods of employment, since the unemployment insurance system, including payment of unemployment insurance premiums, came into force on 1 January 2002). If you want confirmation of periods of uninsured periods of employment, please include

• a copy of the employment record book (including the front page that contains the personal data of the owner of the employment record book) in your application;
• employment contracts or contracts for services, or
• certificate(s) of employer(s).

You can send a digitally signed application to the email info@tootukassa.ee.