You are considered "unemployed" if you stopped working, whether by choice or through termination; you have
registered as unemployed at the Employment Service bureau; and you report to the bureau in order to obtain work in accordance with the Employment Service Regulations.
A person who terminated his work of his own will, without a justified reason – will begin to receive unemployment benefits only after 90 days from the date of his work termination. Despite this, he must report to the Employment Service right after he stops working, in order not to lose his rights.
A person who terminated his work of his own will, for one of the reasons defined in the law and the regulations as justified – must submit the appropriate documents to prove his claims, and will begin to receive regular unemployment benefits.
Examples of justified reasons for terminating work: resignation of an employee due to a health condition from which he or a family member suffers, resignation due to a concrete deterioration in his work conditions, or the creation of circumstances in his workplace that do not enable him to continue working there. Resigning from a job due to a change in place of residence or the transfer of the workplace will be considered justified, provided that the distance between the new residence and the workplace exceeds 60 kilometers (or 40 kilometers for the mother of a child below seven years of age).
Resignation from a "interim work" (employment of less than 6 months) - those who, after stopping their work, chose not to realize their right to unemployment benefits, but were rather interested in starting a new interim job. If they have worked in such a job for a period of up to 6 months and then resigned, their resignation will be deemed justified, provided they have accrued the required qualifying period, on the day of termination of their previous work.
Resignation from a "secondary work" - if you have worked in two jobs of similar position, then you have been dismissed or you resigned from one of them for justified reasons, and kept working in the other employment for a period of up to 3 months before resigning from it eventually, your resignation from the second job will be deemed justified.
Pregnant woman/mother of a newborn who has resigned from her job
A woman who has quit her job either before or after giving birth, will be regarded as having resigned of her own volition, that is to say, she will only start receiving the unemployment benefit after 90 days from when she ceased work (she must produce confirmation from her employer). Although according to the severance pay law, the resignation of a pregnant woman/new mother is regarded as the same as termination, quitting is not regarded as a justifiable reason for ceasing work according to unemployment insurance law.
However, in the following cases, the resignation of a pregnant woman/new mother may be recognized as justified:
The employer certifies that the pregnant woman/ new mother is required to work long hours, with no possibility of reducing her hours of work according to the law on women's work.
The employer certifies that the pregnant woman/new mother is required to work divided hours, even one day per week.
The pregnant woman/new mother lives at a distance of 40 km from her place of work, and the length of the journey or transport arrangements are not suited to the regular hours of early childhood care facilities.
A person to whom the Employment Service bureau offered suitable workThe work offered is considered to be suitable work if it meets the following conditions: a. It is the type of work at which the unemployed person worked in the three years preceding his unemployment, or any other work suiting his professional training, educational level and condition of health; b. the wages of the work offered are at least equal to the unemployment benefit which would be due to him were he entitled to it; c. the work offered does not require a change in his residence, according to the rules which have been determined. Conditions a and b above do not apply to persons under the age of 35 from the third month of their unemployment onwards, nor do they apply to seasonal workers. which he refused, or a person to whom the bureau offered training, advanced training or professional retraining, which he refused – will begin to receive unemployment benefits only 90 days after the date of the refusal, each time that he refuses, and 30 days will be deducted from the number of days due to him.
The rules for reporting to the bureau according to the Employment Service regulations:
You must come on your own to the Employment Service bureau, during the opening days and hours in the section to which you have been placed
If you do not report on one of the days appointed for you, the days between the first time you report and the second time you report will be considered days on which you worked and you will not receive unemployment benefits for them.
If you report to the Employment Service bureau on a day other than the day appointed for you, only the day on which you report will be considered a day of unemployment.
You may be considered "unemployed", even if you do not report to the Employment Service, provided that you meet one of the following conditions:
- You are undergoing vocational training to which you were referred by the Employment Service bureau, provided that you began studying within the 12 consecutive months from the date you registered with the bureau as unemployed
- The Employment Service bureau referred you to a job in which the salary is lower than the unemployment benefit and you are working in that job
It is important to report to the Employment Service bureau immediately after you have ceased work.
Submitting a claim for unemployment benefit online.