Unemployment benefit

• Workers covered by the general social security scheme for employees who:

o Have had an employment contract and have become unemployed or
o Have suspended the contract of employment on the grounds of salary arrears

• Domestic service workers, if the basis of contribution corresponds to the remuneration effectively received under a full time monthly labour contract
• Disability pensioners of the general social security regime who are declared fit for work in a disability review and are unemployed
• Primary and secondary school teachers
• Ex-military personnel under a contract/volunteer regime
• Agricultural workers registered with Social Security after 1 January 2011
• Undifferentiated agricultural workers, registered in Social Security until 31 December 2010, in case their contributions have been calculated based on the actual salary
• Workers nominated for management positions provided that, on the date of their nomination, they belonged to the company's staff as workers contracted for at least one year and covered by the general social security regime for employees
• Contract workers who, cumulatively, are managers, partners or not, in a non-profit entity, provided that they do not receive any type of remuneration for the exercise of these functions.
   

Access to the subsidy depends on the cumulative verification of the following conditions:

• Reside in national territory
• Be involuntarily unemployed
• Have capacity and availability for work
• Be registered for job search in the employment centre of the area of residence
• Have the required guarantee period: 360 days of paid work in the 24 months prior to unemployment.

Notes:
1 - If you have less than 360 days, you may be entitled to Social Unemployment Benefit.
2 – If you already claim or were receiving Unemployment Benefit and you start a part-time work you may be entitled to the Partial Unemployment Benefit.

Beneficiaries who become unemployed on or after 1 April 2012 and who, on 31 March 2012, had no qualifying period for access to unemployment benefit, the periods of duration of the benefit are as follows:

In the first unemployment situation, after March 31, 2012, if the beneficiary claims the unemployment benefit, the concession periods are as follows:

The amount of the unemployment benefit, calculated on the basis of a 30 day month, is equal to 65% of the daily reference earnings defined by:

R/360, whereby
R means the total earnings registered in the first twelve calendar years preceding the second month prior to that of the unemployment.

Beneficiaries with working life periods in the European Area and Switzerland Community / European Economic

If during the reference period:

• The person concerned was employed in Portugal and in another EC or EEE Member State, the daily average earnings are calculated under the formula:

(R1+R2) / 360, whereby
R1 means the total earnings registered in Portugal within the reference period
R2 means the amount resulting from the daily average earnings in Portugal during the reference period times the number of working days in the other Member State during the same period.

• The person concerned was not employed in Portugal during the reference period but only during the first two months prior to the unemployment, and was employed in another EC or EEE Member State during that period, the average earnings are calculated under the formula:

R2 / 360, whereby
R2 means the amount resulting from the daily average earnings in Portugal as from the first day of the second month prior to the unemployment until the day before the unemployment times the number of working days in the other Member State during the reference period.

Former invalidity pensioners
The daily amount of the unemployment benefit granted to former invalidity pensioners is indexed to the SSI (509,26 €) and is calculated on the basis of a 30 day month as follows:

• 100% for beneficiaries with dependants
• 80% (407,41 €) for beneficiaries with no dependants.

Maximum limit: the monthly amount of the benefit cannot be higher than 2,5 times the amount of the SSI (1.273,15 €) and cannot exceed 75% of the net amount of the reference earnings that served as the basis of calculation for the unemployment benefit.

For former invalidity pensioners, the maximum amount is the amount of the pension.

Minimum limit: the monthly amount of the benefit cannot be lower than the 509,26 € (SSI)  unless net reference income is less than the SSI.

Increased amount
The daily amount of the benefit is increased by 10% if:

• in the same household both spouses or common law partners are receiving unemployment benefit and have dependent children or others in a similar situation, the increase is for each of the beneficiaries.

When one of the spouses or common law partners ceases the entitlement to the unemployment benefit and begins to receive the social unemployment benefit or, though still unemployed, is no longer entitled to any unemployment related benefit, there is still place for the increase in the unemployment benefit of the other beneficiary.

• the unemployment benefit holder is a sole-parent and not entitled to alimony due to a court decision.

The claim must be presented online, within 90 days of the date of unemployment, to the Employment Centre of the beneficiary’s area of residence.
If the claim is presented after the 90 day period but during the legal period of benefit concession, there will be a reduction in the respective concession period, corresponding to the delay in the presentation of the claim.