The social security provider Sociálna Poisťovňa paid out unemployment benefits to 54,300 persons in May 2009. It was the highest number of unemployment benefits paid in a month since 2004, the SITA newswire reported.
The number of persons eligible for unemployment benefit rose for the sixth month in a row when in November 2008 only 23,400 people were receiving unemployment benefit. Compared with April 2009, the number of persons who received unemployment benefits increased by 7,000. The number of paid unemployment benefits surged by 32,800 or 153 percent year-on-year.
Unemployment insurance contributions currently make up 2 percent of the calculation base of the insured person. The employer and the employee each pay 50 percent. A person voluntarily insured for unemployment pays insurance of 2 percent of the calculation base that the person sets according to his/her own choice. The minimum calculation base, however, equals is the minimum wage currently at €295.50. The highest possible calculation base for paying unemployment insurance rose from threefold to fourfold of the average wage in Slovakia, which is €2,674.90 as of July 2008.
Compiled by Michaela Stanková from press reports
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