If unemployed people take on a full-time job, they should receive a higher allowance than if they had a part-time job. Minister of Labor Martin Kocher (ÖVP) and the Public Employment Service (AMS) announced this on Tuesday. Facilities for people with disabilities are also planned.
This concerns the combined wage subsidy, which has existed since 2006. Until now, the support offered has mainly been aimed at the long-term unemployed and provided money for people who have started a new job. You will receive a supplement to your net income of 30 percent of the unemployment benefit or emergency aid benefit for a maximum of one year. To do this, they must accept a position that requires at least 20 hours per week. The condition is that you have been registered as unemployed with the AMS for six months.
The threshold is increased to 30 hours per week
These regulations will be changed as of June 1, Kocher announced at a press conference on Tuesday. The threshold for financing increases from the current 20 to 30 hours per week. However, the subsidy is considerably higher at 55 percent. The aim is to provide assistance to a broader group of people and combat the shortage of skilled workers. In addition, vulnerable groups should be helped to enter the labor market.
“We know that the financing works well. “It means that people who would otherwise have a hard time gain a foothold in the labor market,” says Kocher with conviction. For example, AMS board member Petra Draxl mentioned people over 50 years old; Women after maternity leave and people who for certain reasons could not work full-time, but would not be able to survive on a part-time salary. The existing model must remain available for people with disabilities and care responsibilities. Here, the six-month AMS reservation should be a requirement for eligibility.
Half more hours per week of help
Draxl expects 8,000 cases this year. In more than half of the cases, people can keep work after the subsidy expires by working more hours per week.
On Tuesday there was praise from the Chamber of Commerce (WK), criticism from the Chamber of Labor (AK). “As experts often criticize, our tax and premium system encourages part-time work too much. “It is therefore an important and correct signal that we are now taking a new approach to combined wages and providing overtime incentives,” WKÖ Secretary General Karlheinz Kopf said in a press release.
The Chamber of Labor points out that older people in particular often cannot choose their job. They are repeatedly forced to take jobs with less than 30 hours per week. “There are better ways to make full-time work more attractive: for example, the overtime allowance in the Working Hours Act could be increased to 50 percent – this bonus should also apply if extra hours are compensated in the form of compensatory time (. ..)” , AK head of social affairs Ines Stilling suggested.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
