Applying for unemployment money in Sweden
A step-by-step guide tailored to international researchers
Getting unemployment money in Sweden is not the easiest thing, especially for a non-Swedish speaker. There are several different websites, some of them only in Swedish, and not a clear English guide on where to go for each step… because of that, I created this document to guide anyone so they can hopefully succeed in the process, as I did last year :)
Requirements: You need to have been registered with any A-kassa and paying monthly fees for at least 12 months before becoming unemployed. In some cases (i.e. Sveriges Ingenjörer) this actually has to be 18 months for receiving the full 80% of your salary, so make sure you are a registered well before your contract ends.
Note: This guide does not intend to be an extensive guide for anyone to use, it just documents the overall procedure, and in several sections is quite specific to PhD graduates.
Part 1: Register in Arbetsförmedlingen
Arbetsförmedlingen is the Swedish public employment service. You have to start by notifying them that you are currently unemployed, and they will afterwards be “checking up” on you to see what are you doing towards getting a new job.
On your first day of unemployment, go to Arbetsförmedlingen & log in with your bank ID.
Create a profile, and then register yourself as unemployed (option “Skriv in dig”).
You will have to answer a series of questions about your work situation, below the most likely answers (basically say that you are available for any type of job):
Then you need to answer even more questions about your profession, competences, background, etc. Try to be thorough and add as many things as possible. In case you are a graduate from the bioscience program in Chalmers (as I was), choose “Forskarutbildningen i biovetenskap”.
Finally, you need to book a meeting with your case handler, which can be arranged by phone or in person. Usually it’s faster to get an appointment by phone call.
In the meeting, your case handler will ask you about your plans for the future and how are you intending to apply for a job. Usually PhD graduates are placed in the “best” category, in which you can look yourself for a job without them constantly checking on you (at least during the first few months).
That’s it. For the duration of your unemployment, after each month has passed you need to fill up a monthly report. Make sure to include everything you have been doing in order to get a job (preparing your CV, applying for jobs, interviews, etc). More information here.
Part 2: Apply for basal money at your A-kassa
A-kassa will pay for the main part of your salary while you are unemployed. Depending on your A-kassa, the following instructions might vary, I used akademikernas:
After registering yourself at Arbetsförmedlingen (part 1 - step 5), go to your A-kassa website, in my case https://www.aea.se/.
Login with your bank ID and apply for benefits (option Ansökan om ersättning”), below the most likely answers for any PhD graduate (temporary employment):
A to-do list will be created with the next steps you have to complete; for this go to “Att göra”.
Upload your employment certificate (“arbetsgivarintyg”): Contact your university for getting this document (in my case, I sent an email to LRS from Chalmers at lrs.stodet@chalmers.se). Upload the document in the corresponding task in your to-do list (option “Jag vill ladda upp mitt arbetsgivarintyg”).
Fill in your studies information (“Studieintyg”, necessary for PhD graduates): If this option does not appear in your to-do list, you find the option at “E-tjänster”. Answer the questions regarding past studies in Sweden and confirm with your bank ID.
First weekly report: Go through the last pending item in your to-do list, “Information om första tidrapporten”, where you need to read and accept how and when to complete your time reports. The Monday after the first week of unemployment has passed, go to “Rapportera tid” and fill up your status during the previous week (choose “Arbetslös”).
Activate your bank account to receive payments based on your personal number. If you have a Swedbank account, you can do that at http://swedbank.se/konoregister
If all those steps were done correctly, you should receive shortly after a letter from your A-kassa with the decision. From now onwards, after each week of unemployment has passed you should fill up the weekly report, making sure to indicate if you take vacation/sick leave/etc, as this gets properly discounted from your payments. A-kassa makes payments once a week, as long as you complete the weekly report on time. More information here.
Note that the first 6 days of unemployment are “qualification” days, i.e. you won’t get any money.
Note also that A-kassa will only cover a part of your unemployment money (as of April 2020, 910 SEK per working day). As that amounts to less than 80% of a monthly PhD salary, you need to apply elsewhere to get the difference (see parts 3 and 4).
Part 3: Apply for supplementary money at TSN (days 1 until 44)
If you have had a fixed contract of 3 years or more (i.e. most PhD graduates and some postdocs), you are eligible for receiving benefits from Trygghetsstiftelsen (TSN) or a similar agency your university has an agreement with. Shortly before you become unemployed TSN should have contacted you for a meeting, in which they will go through the number of benefits they offer. One of them is the possibility of paying the difference between what A-kassa covers of unemployment and 80% of your salary, for the first 44 days of unemployment. For doing that, follow these steps:
At https://www.tsn.se/ you can create a user and provide some minimal information.
Only after you have received a decision letter from A-kassa (part 2), log in to your page, and go to “My economy -> Application and decisions”. Choose the option “Job-seeker” and then “Application for A-kassa supplement”.
Go through the steps of the application (this one is available in English so I won’t go through it step by step). You will need to provide the decision letter from your A-kassa and the previously mentioned “arbetsgivarintyg” document from part 2 - step 4.
A decision will be made after a few days (even though they warn it can take up to 3 weeks). You should start receiving your money directly in your bank account twice a month.
Part 4: Apply for supplementary money at your union (days 45 onward)
As soon as the TSN supplement runs out (or from day 1 in case you had a contract shorter than 3 years), you can apply at your specific union for continuing the top-up supplement. As I am an engineer, I used Sveriges Ingenjörer (note that they require you to have been a member with them for at least 18 months). You can apply by just completing the application formulary, they should reply back via email. Additional information is available here.
Final words
Hope that this guide is useful! As administrative procedures change all the time, feel free to contact me to let me know if I need to update something in this guide. Even better, you can make a pull request to this document with the updated instructions.
Ben
