Period of application and entitlement, duration, suspension, resumption and termination of entitlement

APPLICATION PERIOD AND ACQUISITION OF THE RIGHT

Entitlement to unemployment benefit commences on the day following the date of the qualifying event, provided that the application is made within 15 working days of the qualifying event. If applied for outside this period, but within six months of the date of the event giving rise to the claim, it shall be deemed to arise on the day on which the application is submitted. 

If the unemployment benefit is applied for after six months have elapsed from the date of the causal event, the application will be rejected, unless on the last day of this period the applicant was working as an employee or self-employed person, or receiving temporary disability benefit or childbirth and childcare benefit, in which case the application period will be extended to fifteen working days following the end of the work or termination of the benefit. 

The date of the causal event giving rise to the benefit shall be considered as: 

• the date on which the contributory unemployment benefit was exhausted if the benefit is accessed in this circumstance.
• the date of the last legal situation of unemployment if access is gained by accrediting insufficient contributions for access to the contributory benefit.
• the date of your return to Spain in order to establish your permanent residence if you qualify for the benefit for returned emigrants.
• the date on which the competent administration issues the corresponding report accrediting that you are a victim of sex-based or sexual violence, the date on which the report of the Public Prosecutor's Office is issued, or the date of notification of the corresponding sentence or court decision, if you are entitled to the benefit for victims of sex-based or sexual violence or violence perpetrated by parents or children.
• for access to unemployment benefits for workers over 52 years of age:

If you have exhausted your contributory unemployment benefit on or after 1 November 2024: the date of the causal event is the date of exhaustion of the contributory benefit.

If you receive the benefit after having paid contributions for at least 90 days, the date of the causal event is the date of the last legal unemployment status prior to claiming the benefit for workers over 52 years of age.

If, on the date on which you are entitled to resume any benefit, you meet all the conditions for entitlement to the allowance for working people over 52, the date of the causal event is considered to be the date on which the benefit is resumed.

If when you exhausted your contributory benefit or when you were legally unemployed and had contributed for at least 90 days, you met all the requirements to access the allowance for workers over 52 years of age, but you had not reached the age of 52 and you do so later, the date of the causal event will be considered the date on which you reached that age, provided that you have remained registered as a jobseeker.

If you have been employed or self-employed since the date of the causal event, in order to qualify for the benefit you must have left your last job involuntarily or be legally unemployed. 

DURATION 

DURATION OF THE ALLOWANCE FOR EXHAUSTION OF CONTRIBUTORY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT:

The allowance shall be granted for renewable quarterly periods until the maximum duration has been exhausted. The request to extend it must be submitted within fifteen working days following the end of the quarterly period. Submitted within that period, it shall be extended from the day following the date of exhaustion of the quarterly entitlement period. If you submit your application after this deadline, the right to the extension will be granted from the date of your application, provided that it is submitted within six months of the date on which the quarterly period expires. If you apply for the extension outside this six-month period, your application will be rejected, unless, on the last day of this period, you were working as an employee or self-employed person, in which case the application period will be extended to fifteen working days after the end of the work. In this case, the last cessation prior to the recognition of the extension must be involuntary or constitute a legal situation of unemployment.

DURATION OF THE BENEFIT FOR PROVING INSUFFICIENT CONTRIBUTIONS FOR ACCESS TO CONTRIBUTORY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT:

The allowance shall be granted for renewable quarterly periods until the maximum duration has been exhausted. The request to extend it must be submitted within fifteen working days following the end of the quarterly period. Submitted within that period, it shall be extended from the day following the date of exhaustion of the quarterly entitlement period. If you submit your application after this deadline, the right to the extension will be granted from the date of your application, provided that it is submitted within six months of the date on which the quarterly period expires. If you apply for the extension outside this six-month period, your application will be rejected, unless, on the last day of this period, you were working as an employee or self-employed person, in which case the application period will be extended to fifteen working days after the end of the work. In this case, the last cessation prior to the recognition of the extension must be involuntary or constitute a legal situation of unemployment.

DURATION OF THE ALLOWANCE FOR THOSE AGED OVER 52:

The duration will be until you reach the ordinary age required for entitlement to a contributory retirement pension under the Social Security system.

To continue receiving the allowance for workers over 52 years of age, you must submit an annual declaration of your income to the managing body, accompanied by the corresponding supporting documentation. This declaration must be submitted every twelve months from the date on which the entitlement arose or from the date on which it was last resumed. The deadline for submitting this declaration is 15 days after the end of the twelve-month period. If you do not submit this declaration by the deadline, payment of the benefit and social security contributions will be stopped. If you submit the declaration after the deadline, your benefit will be resumed, but with effect from the date on which you submitted the declaration.

DURATION OF THE ALLOWANCE FOR RETURNED MIGRANTS:

The maximum duration will be 18 months if the requirements are met.

The allowance shall be granted for renewable quarterly periods until the maximum duration has been exhausted. The request to extend it must be submitted within fifteen working days following the end of the quarterly period. Submitted within that period, it shall be extended from the day following the date of exhaustion of the quarterly entitlement period. If you submit your application after this deadline, the right to the extension will be granted from the date of your application, provided that it is submitted within six months of the date on which the quarterly period expires. If you apply for the extension outside this six-month period, your application will be rejected, unless, on the last day of this period, you were working as an employee or self-employed person, in which case the application period will be extended to fifteen working days after the end of the work. In this case, the last cessation prior to the recognition of the extension must be involuntary or constitute a legal situation of unemployment.

DURATION FOR VICTIMS OF SEX-BASED OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE:

The maximum duration of the allowance will be 30 months, unless you have previously received one or two entitlements to the Active Insertion Income (RAI) programme for the same reason, in which case, the maximum duration will be 20 and 10 months, respectively. If 3 or more years have elapsed since the start of the RAI, the duration of the benefit is 30 months.

The allowance shall be granted for renewable quarterly periods until the maximum duration has been exhausted. The request to extend it must be submitted within fifteen working days following the end of the quarterly period. Submitted within that period, it shall be extended from the day following the date of exhaustion of the quarterly entitlement period. If you submit your application after this deadline, the right to the extension will be granted from the date of your application, provided that it is submitted within six months of the date on which the quarterly period expires. If you apply for the extension outside this six-month period, your application will be rejected, unless, on the last day of this period, you were working as an employee or self-employed person, in which case the application period will be extended to fifteen working days after the end of the work. In this case, the last cessation prior to the recognition of the extension must be involuntary or constitute a legal situation of unemployment.

SUSPENSION

The suspension of entitlement means the interruption of the payment of benefits and, where appropriate, of the contribution, and does not affect the period of their receipt except in the case of a sanction, and the causes for this are as follows:

1. During the period corresponding to the imposition of penalties for minor and serious infringements under the terms established in the revised text of the Law on Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order. If, at the end of the period referred to in the previous paragraph, the benefit beneficiary is not registered as a job seeker or has suspended the activity agreement, the resumption of the benefit will require the prior accreditation of said registration and the reactivation of the activity agreement by the beneficiary, before the managing body, by any legally valid means.

2. During the situation of birth, adoption, guardianship for the purpose of adoption or foster care.
3. While the right holder is serving a sentence involving deprivation of liberty. Entitlement shall not be suspended if the holder applies for continuation of entitlement by proving that the total income of the family unit, divided by the number of family members, does not exceed the minimum professional wage.
4. While the beneficiary is in full-time or part-time paid employment for less than 12 months, except in the cases and for the maximum period stipulated in Article 282.2 and 3, which respectively establish the compatibility, at the worker's request, of the contributory benefit with part-time paid employment, and the compatibility of the subsidy as a supplement to employment support with full-time or part-time paid employment.

As long as the entitled person is self-employed for under 60 months in the case of self-employed workers who are registered in the Social Security Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers or in the Social Security Special Scheme for Seafarers, or 24 months in the case of activities registered in a mutual benefit fund alternative to the Social Security Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers.

5. When they continue to provide services or do not provide them at the will of the company, in cases where a judgement declares the dismissal to be unfair or null and void and the employer opts for reinstatement and lodges an appeal, while the appeal is pending. It is also suspended in the event that it is the employee who opts for reinstatement and lodges the appeal.
6. In cases of transfer of residence abroad in which the beneficiary declares that this is for the purpose of seeking or carrying out work, professional improvement or international cooperation, for a continuous period of under twelve months, provided that the departure abroad is previously notified to and authorised by the managing body, without prejudice to the application of the provisions on the export of benefits in European Union regulations.
7. In the event of a stay abroad for a period, whether continuous or not, of up to a maximum of ninety calendar days during each calendar year, provided that the departure to another country is previously communicated to and authorised by the managing body. Departure abroad for a period not exceeding thirty calendar days, once a year, shall not be considered as a stay or transfer of residence, without prejudice to the fulfilment of the obligations established.
8. When the beneficiaries of unemployment benefits fail to comply with the obligation to present, within the established deadlines, the documents required of them by the managing body, provided that these may affect the preservation of the right to the benefits.
9. During periods in which the beneficiaries are not registered as job seekers with the competent public employment service, unless they are in full-time paid employment and are receiving the benefit or subsidy as a complement to employment support as established.
10. During the periods in which, according to the communication from the competent Public Employment Service, the activity agreement is breached or suspended.
11. In the event of failure to file the annual personal income tax return, the suspension will take place when the managing body detects that the beneficiaries of benefits have not complied with the obligation to file the personal income tax return during a tax year, in accordance with the conditions and deadlines set out in the applicable tax regulations.
12. When permanent-discontinuous workers who are called back to work do not return to their jobs, unless there is a justified reason.

RESUMPTION

Unemployment benefits will be resumed:

1. Ex officio by the managing body, in the cases listed in section 1.a), provided that the entitlement period has not been exhausted.
2. At the request of the person concerned, in the cases referred to in paragraph 1(b), (c), (d), (e), (f) and (g), provided that it is accredited that the cause for suspension has ended, that, where applicable, this cause constitutes legal unemployment or registration as a jobseeker in the case of self-employed workers.

If, after the cessation of self-employment, the worker is entitled to unemployment protection, he/she can choose between receiving unemployment protection or reopening the entitlement to suspended unemployment protection. The right to resume work shall arise from the end of the cause of suspension, provided that it is requested within the following fifteen days, and recognition of the resumption shall require registration as a jobseeker and reactivation of the activity agreement, except in those cases in which the managing body requires the signing of a new agreement. If the application is submitted after the aforementioned time limit has expired, the effects provided for in Article 268(2) shall be produced. In the event that the period corresponding to paid annual leave has not been taken, the provisions of Article 268.3 shall apply.

3. From the date on which it is accredited that the legal requirements established for the maintenance of the right are met, in the cases of paragraph 1.h) and k).
4. From the date of registration as a jobseeker, or reactivation of the activity agreement, unless the suspension of the benefit is maintained or it is terminated for any of the reasons provided for in this or any other regulation, in the cases provided for in section 1. i) and j).
5. At the request of the person concerned, providing proof of a new legal situation of unemployment, in the case provided for in paragraph 1(l). Entitlement to the resumption of unemployment shall begin on the day following the day on which the person becomes legally unemployed, provided that the application is made within the following fifteen working days. Otherwise, the effects provided for in Article 268(2) shall apply. The recognition of the resumption of employment requires registration as a jobseeker and the reactivation of the activity agreement, except in those cases in which the managing body requires the signing of a new agreement.

EXPIRY

Entitlement to unemployment benefits shall expire in the following cases:

1. Exhaustion of the term of the benefit.
2. Imposition of a sanction under the terms provided for in the revised text of the Law on Offences and Sanctions in the Social Order, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000 of 4 August.
3. Performing work as an employee for a period of 12 months or more, without prejudice to the right of option (when the right to the benefit is terminated because the holder performs one or more jobs of a cumulative duration of 12 months or more, without resuming unemployment benefit between them), or performing self-employment for a period of 60 months or more in the case of self-employed workers who are registered in the Social Security Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers or in the Social Security Special Scheme for Seafarers, or 24 months in the case of activities with registration in a mutual benefit society alternative to the Social Security Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers.
4. The entitlement holder has reached the ordinary age required in each case to qualify for a contributory retirement pension, unless the worker has not accredited the required contribution period or in cases of suspension of the contract or reduction of working hours.
5. Becoming a pensioner for retirement, or for permanent disability in the degrees of total permanent disability, absolute permanent disability or severe disability. However, in such cases, the beneficiary may opt for the most favourable benefit.
6. Transfer of residence or stay abroad, except in the cases that are a cause for suspension under letters f) and g) of the previous section on suspension.
7. Voluntary renunciation of the right.
8. The period of six years from the date of deregistration of the benefit has elapsed without the entitlement having been resumed.

If six months have passed since the exhaustion of the quarterly extension without you having applied for an extension, the benefit will expire after 6 months, unless you are working on that date, in which case it will expire after the 15 days following the end of your work without having applied for an extension and proving that you meet all the requirements for its recognition.