Enter where you worked and how much you earned. The calculator checks whether you are entitled and breaks the benefit down by month.
An indicative calculation under Act No. 461/2003 Coll. and Act No. 5/2004 Coll. as in force on 16 October 2026. The Social Insurance Agency decides on entitlement and the amount of the benefit, and the labour office on registration. The calculator does not count days for which the benefit is not paid (sick leave (PN), family-care benefit, maternity benefit, parental allowance), cases involving another country, police officers and soldiers, or the special branch for an employee without an assessment base and a voluntarily insured person. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.
Entitlement belongs to a person who is registered as a jobseeker at the labour office and has gained at least two years of unemployment insurance in the last four years. The Act counts two years as 730 days, even if a leap year falls within the four years. The days do not have to be consecutive.
Unemployment insurance does not apply to recipients of an old-age or early old-age pension, an invalidity pension with a drop in the ability to work of more than 70 %, or an invalidity pension after reaching retirement age. Exactly 70 % is not more than 70 %. A widow’s, widower’s or orphan’s pension is not an obstacle in itself. Police officers and professional soldiers have special conditions that the calculator does not cover.
| Status | Unemployment insurance |
|---|---|
| Employment with a regular monthly income | Usually yes. |
| Agreement with a right to a regular monthly income | Usually yes. Pension and student status are checked. |
| Agreement with irregular income | Usually pension insurance only. |
| Agreement on work activity – seasonal work | A special branch can create insurance even with an irregular income. |
| Agreement on temporary work of students | On its own it does not create ordinary unemployment insurance. |
| Self-employed with compulsory contributions | No. They may have older employment or voluntary insurance. |
| Voluntarily insured person | Yes, if the insurance validly arose and the contributions are paid on time. |
| Managing director with a regular remuneration or in an employment relationship | Can be insured. The possibility of registration is checked separately. |
| Dividends or an unpaid managing director role | They do not create unemployment insurance. |
| Study, caring, insurance paid by the state | On their own they do not create unemployment insurance. |
The benefit is calculated from the daily assessment base. It is built from the two years just before the day you are registered. Not from the last pay.
The assessment period moves with the registration date. With registration on 1 January 2026 it has 731 days, and on 1 January 2027 it has 730 days. With registration on 15 May 2026 it is the period from 15 May 2024 to 14 May 2026.
Rounding is applied only to the monthly amount, once per calendar month. With a daily base of 33,3334 € and 31 days at 50 %, the result is 516,70 €. If you rounded the daily benefit to 16,67 €, you would get 516,80 €.
If you are registered on 15 January 2026, the first month of the benefit runs to 14 February, and the fourth, at the 40 % rate, starts on 15 April. So two rates apply in April: 14 days at 50 % and 16 days at 40 %. With a daily base of 50 €, that is 350 € + 320 € = 670 €.
| Month of the benefit | Entitlement from 1 January 2026 | Entitlement until 31 December 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st to 3rd | 50 % | 50 % |
| 4. | 40 % | 50 % |
| 5. | 30 % | 50 % |
| 6. | 20 % | 50 % |
An entitlement that arose by 31 December 2025 keeps 50 % for all months, even if the rest of it is paid in 2026 or 2027. The fall from 50 % to 40 % is a drop of ten percentage points, not 50 % × 90 %.
Registration on 1 January 2026. Assessment bases for the two years total 36 000 € over 731 days. Daily base: 36 000 ÷ 731 = 49,2477 €.
| Month | Days and rate | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 31 days × 50 % | 763,40 € |
| February 2026 | 28 days × 50 % | 689,50 € |
| March 2026 | 31 days × 50 % | 763,40 € |
| April 2026 | 30 days × 40 % | 591,00 € |
| May 2026 | 31 days × 30 % | 458,10 € |
| June 2026 | 30 days × 20 % | 295,50 € |
| Total | 3 560,90 € | |
The daily base has an upper cap. It is twice the general assessment base divided by 365, rounded up to four decimal places. What decides is the date the entitlement arose, not the month in which the benefit is paid.
| Date the entitlement arose | Base used | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January to 30 June 2026 | Year 2024: 18 288 € | 100,2083 € |
| 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 | Year 2025: 19 440 € | 106,5206 € |
| from 1 July 2027 | Year 2026: not yet published | not yet known |
If the benefit began before 1 July and continues after it, its daily base is not recalculated to the higher cap. You cannot “choose” the new cap by changing the month of payment.
The cap for this entitlement depends on the general assessment base for the whole of 2026, which is not yet known. The calculator does not invent a cap. If your daily base is not higher than 106,5206 €, it shows the amounts with a caveat. If it is higher, it shows only the provisional daily base.
| Rate | Entitlement until 30 June 2026 30 days / 31 days | Entitlement from 1 July 2026 30 days / 31 days |
|---|---|---|
| 50 % (months 1 to 3) | 1 503,20 / 1 553,30 € | 1 597,90 / 1 651,10 € |
| 40 % (month 4) | 1 202,50 / 1 242,60 € | 1 278,30 / 1 320,90 € |
| 30 % (month 5) | 901,90 / 932,00 € | 958,70 / 990,70 € |
| 20 % (month 6) | 601,30 / 621,30 € | 639,20 / 660,50 € |
The amounts at 40, 30 and 20 % are recalculated from the maximum; they are not separate statutory maximums. For February and an incomplete month, the actual number of days is used. So six payments of 1 651,10 € cannot be promised.
This can happen to a sole trader who worked in employment before starting the trade licence. If you have 730 days of insurance but no assessment base for unemployment insurance in the two years just before registration, the constant is used.
The constant is half of one twelfth of the general assessment base from two years earlier. For an entitlement arising in 2026 it is 762 €, and in 2027 810 €. We derived the value for 2027 from the already known base for 2025; the Social Insurance Agency has not published it separately.
The daily base is the constant divided by the number of days in the month in which you are registered. That is how the Social Insurance Agency’s tables give it. For February the divisor is not publicly stated, so the calculator uses the actual number of days and marks the result as an estimate.
If you have a low actual base, for example from part-time work, the benefit is not topped up to the constant. With a base of 10 € a day, the benefit for 30 days at 50 % is exactly 150 €. Nor does anyone without 730 days of insurance get the constant: self-employed contributions alone do not create them.
If you were on parental leave during your employment and have no assessment base in the last two years, the assessment period moves back to before it began. The daily base then must not be lower than from the constant. The calculator can handle this branch, but marks the result as conditional. The Social Insurance Agency confirms protection against a lower base from the time of parental leave.
| Year and days of the month of entitlement | Daily base | Benefit at 50 % for a full month |
|---|---|---|
| 2026, 30 days | 25,4000 € | 381,00 € |
| 2026, 31 days | 24,5807 € | 381,10 € |
| 2027, 30 days | 27,0000 € | 405,00 € |
| 2027, 31 days | 26,1291 € | 405,10 € |
The values for 2027 are derived by calculation, not published in a Social Insurance Agency table. We take the divisor of the constant from its table according to the methodology, and we could not verify it independently.
In 2023 and 2024 you worked in employment (731 days). In 2025 and 2026 you ran a business, and the trade licence was suspended as at 31 December 2026. You are registered from 1 January 2027. You have no assessment base in the two-year period, so the constant applies: 810 ÷ 31 = 26,1291 € a day and 405,10 € for the whole of January. The wages from 2023 and 2024 are not used in the calculation.
Submit your application for registration within 7 calendar days of the end of employment or business. You will be registered from the day after it ended. Applying later? You will be registered from the day you applied.
A shift of one day moves the two-year period from which the amount of the benefit is calculated, and the four-year insurance window. When it crosses 1 July, the cap may change. The benefit is due from the registration date, and you do not receive it for the days between the end of work and a late application.
You can try out the difference in the calculator: enter the same last day of work and two different application dates.
| Application submitted | Registered from |
|---|---|
| 3. 11. 2026 | 1. 11. 2026 |
| 7 November 2026 (the seventh day) | 1. 11. 2026 |
| 8. 11. 2026 | 8. 11. 2026 |
We checked the deadline on 16 October 2026 on the website of the labour, social affairs and family offices.
A maximum of six months. But that is not 180 days, nor six calendar months from the first of the month: each month of the benefit starts on the registration date.
The benefit is paid for calendar days, including weekends and public holidays, monthly in arrears. If you are registered on the 29th, 30th or 31st day of a month, the boundaries of the benefit months shift, because some months do not have such a day. The calculator flags such a start, and the Social Insurance Agency confirms the exact calendar.
The benefit is not paid for days on which you are entitled to sickness benefit, family-care benefit or maternity benefit, or on which you receive parental allowance. These days do not count towards the six months, so the benefit period is pushed back by them. The reduction in the rate follows the months of the benefit used, not the number of payments sent. The calculator does not count these days. If you are expecting a child, see the maternity benefit calculator.
The benefit ends when it is used up, when you are removed from the register, and when you are awarded an old-age, early old-age or invalidity pension above 70 %.
If you are removed from the register while receiving the benefit, for example because you started work, and you return within two years, you claim the remainder. The original daily base, the unused months and the original regime are used. The new wage, the new cap and a new start at 50 % do not apply.
Example: entitlement from 1 January 2026, daily base 50 €, benefit received from January to March and removal from the register from 1 April. A return on 1 September 2026 brings the remaining months at rates of 40, 30 and 20 %: 600 € + 465 € + 300 € = 1 365 €. With the original entitlement from 2025, 50 % would be kept for the same return.
The two years are counted from removal from the register to re-registration. After that the remainder is not restored, and a new entitlement may be assessed if you have new insurance. A remainder paid as a lump sum can no longer be claimed. The “Return to the register” switch in the calculator works with whole months used.
Instead of monthly payments, you can have half of the remainder of the benefit paid out at once. This is not possible right at the start, and the decision cannot be reversed.
Once paid, the remainder can no longer be claimed. So compare whether the lump sum or a return to the register is better for you in case you lose your job.
Half is taken from the remainder of the benefit at its reduced rates of 40, 30 and 20 %. It is not half of three months at 50 %.
Example: entitlement from 1 January 2026, daily base 50 €, removal from the register from 1 April. The remainder is 30 × 50 € × 0,40 + 31 × 50 € × 0,30 + 30 × 50 € × 0,20 = 1 365 €. You receive 682,50 € as a lump sum. Calculating from three months at 50 % would wrongly give 1 137,50 €.
The Social Insurance Agency does not state on its website whether the half is calculated from the reduced amounts. That is how the methodology the calculator follows calculates it. The Social Insurance Agency will confirm the exact calculation and rounding.
Yes, but only to a limited extent. For an agreement under Section 6(2)(a) of the Employment Services Act, the following applies:
The restrictions also apply to the employer you worked for just before registering. Breaking the conditions can lead to removal from the register. The permitted earnings do not recalculate the benefit from a new base. Special exceptions apply to personal assistance and some public offices.
Every one of these can mean tens or hundreds of euros.
The benefit is calculated from two years, not from the last few months. A higher wage just before the end does not replace the older wages.
Days of insurance are counted by the calendar. Two part-time jobs for a whole year are 365 days, not 730. The wages from both are, however, added together.
Compulsory contributions of the self-employed do not include unemployment insurance. Entitlement may arise from older employment or from voluntary insurance.
A managing director and a partner in an s. r. o. are treated as self-employed for the purposes of registration. Registration needs to be verified with the labour office before you start counting on the benefit.
After seven days from the end you are registered only from the day you apply. The assessment period shifts and, when it crosses 1 July, so does the cap.
It is not. A low actual base is not topped up to the constant, and anyone without 730 days of insurance has no entitlement.
Unemployment benefit is exempt from income tax (Section 9(2)(a) of the Income Tax Act). The calculator therefore deducts nothing from it: the amount in the breakdown is the amount the Social Insurance Agency calculates.
Watch out for the non-taxable part of the tax base for a spouse. A spouse’s own income also includes unemployment benefit, even though it is exempt from tax. It can therefore affect whether the other spouse can claim this part. You can see how this carries through to the return in the online tax return. You will find more tools among the eServices.
It depends on your daily assessment base. The benefit is 50 % of that base in the first three months, 40 % in the fourth, 30 % in the fifth and 20 % in the sixth month. With a base of 49,2477 € a day, that is 763,40 € in January 2026 and 3 560,90 € over the six months. You can work out your own figure in the calculator above.
The total of the assessment bases for unemployment insurance over the two years before registration is divided by the number of days of insurance in that period. The result is the daily base. The benefit for a month is the daily base × the rate × the number of days, rounded up to 10 cents.
For an entitlement that arose from 1 January to 30 June 2026, the maximum daily base is 100,2083 €, which at 50 % for 31 days comes to 1 553,30 €. For an entitlement from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 it is 106,5206 €, and 1 651,10 € for 31 days at 50 %. The cap on the date the entitlement arose applies.
Anyone without 730 days of unemployment insurance in the last four years, anyone who cannot register (because their employment continues, they have a trade licence or they study full time), and anyone receiving an old-age, early old-age or invalidity pension above 70 %.
The compulsory contributions of the self-employed do not include unemployment insurance. They may be entitled if they have enough days left from previous employment within the four-year window, or if they took out voluntary insurance. The trade licence must be cancelled or suspended before registration.
If they had a regular remuneration or an employment relationship, they may have gained unemployment insurance. However, a managing director and a partner are treated as self-employed for the purposes of registration, so registration must be verified with the labour office. Ending employment in your own company is not enough on its own. A special exception applies to a company in liquidation.
For a maximum of six months from the registration date. It is not paid for days when you are entitled to sickness benefit, family-care benefit or maternity benefit, or for days when you receive parental allowance, and those days do not count towards the six months. If you are removed from the register, you can claim the remainder within two years.
Within 7 calendar days of the end of employment or business. You will be registered from the day after it ended. If you apply later, from the day you applied. If employment ended in another EU country, the deadline is 10 days.
Partly. After at least three months of receiving the benefit and removal from the register, you can ask in writing for a lump-sum payment of 50 % of the remainder. The remainder can then no longer be claimed.
No, it is exempt from income tax. However, it is counted towards a spouse’s own income when claiming the non-taxable part of the tax base for a spouse.
A managing director, concurrent jobs, foreign work or unclear insurance periods. Write to us and we will advise which documents to prepare for the Social Insurance Agency and the labour office.
You will find the exact total in your Social Insurance Agency statement or in the annual summary from your employer. Enter only the part that falls within the two years before the registration date.
We process the conversation and the data you enter in line with our privacy policy. We send the chat transcript to the accountant and, once you confirm your address, to you as well.