How do you claim the unemployment benefit?

[akachan]

Does anyone know how to go about getting the unemployment benefit? I know I've paid into the insurance but I don't know where to go, what to say etc
Unsurprisingly information is not jumping out at me........

[Big Booger]

Does anyone know if this information is still relevant? My contract ends this July and I want to get the ball rolling on my unemployment benefits. I have been paying them for 8 years, but I hear you have to wait about 3 months before they start paying you. I'd like to go ahead and file for unemployment so that when I am actually unemployed without a salary I can get some compensation while "looking for a job"

I have actually found two jobs and accepted one, but haven't signed anything binding me legally to that job.

Any advice on getting the unemployment insurance ASAP?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

First, to claim, you have to be out of work and have paid unemployment insurance.
Go to the nearest Hello Work in the municipality in which you live. You'll need to take forms from your former employer that certify you no longer work there and proof of payment of unemployment insurance. No matter how long you have paid insurance, the maximum time you can receive benefits is one year exactly from the date of termination of employment. The actual period you can receive benefits will depend on how long you have paid insurance.
You'll need passport-sized photos to attach to the forms they get you to fill in.
Once all the documentation rigmarole is finished, they'll give you a date to attend a job-seeking lecture. Attendance is cumpolsory and payments will not begin until after you have done this. Once you've sat through the lecture, they'll give you a date to return to the office (usually a few days later) to claim the payment and inform them of the job-seeking activities you have undergone.
It is possible to work and claim entitled benefits, but any work must be declared and no payments will be made for those days on which you worked. Those days are, however, added onto the end of the period you are covered by unemployment. (For example, if you report having worked for five days, you are given a 5-day extension of the period you are entitled to receive benefits).
Be prepared to wait hours for anything...Hello Work is pretty crowded wherever you go at the moment.

[thumper]

I have done it a couple of times during the past the past ten years, and the info above looks OK. You have to take the documents and photos to your local "Hello Work" office ASAP after finishing employment. They will give you a date for a compulsory orientation in der Nihongo. (Attending the orientation and getting the chops on your documents is mandatory in order to draw benefits.)

Also, if your current employer gives you paperwork saying you were made redundant, you may be able to draw a maximum of six months unemployment benefit. Otherwise, it's a max of three months - which doesn't last long in Japan.

BOL!

[Samurai_Jerk]

All the info you need is here (but in Japanese): http://www.hellowork.go.jp/


Anyway, are you choosing not to renew your contract or is your company not allowing you to? I ask because it only takes three months to kick in if you quit your job. If you've been fired, laid off, or asked to take "voluntary retirement" then you'll start accruing benefits one week after your first visit to Hello Work, which you can do the day after your last day of work, and you'll probaby get your first payment a couple of weeks after that.

If you've already accepted an offer there's a couple of things you should consider before trying to work the system. If you've accepted a job offer, you aren't generally eligible for unemployment insurance even if the job doesn't start for a few months. If you register for the insurance payments and then pretend that you found a job later, that might backfire on you. The reason is you have to report the name and contact information of the company. If Hello Work calls and whoever they speak to says you agreed to join way back when and they determine you received money illicitly, the minimum punishment is paying back 3X what you received. If they decide it's fraud, they may pursue criminal prosecution.

There is a sort of congratualtion payment that can be received under certain circumstance when you get a job. The idea is to give you some money to help you get started on the next phase in life or something like that. Maybe you could collect that.

Here's another thing to consider though. If you don't need to take the money now don't. Here's why: the longer you've paid in the longer you receive benefits but once you receive any money from Hello Work your payments reset to zero no matter how long you've paid in. My girlfriend knows an older guy that's a friend of the family who had been paying into the system for 25 or 30 years. He lost his job and found another before he received any money from Hello Work but opted for the congratulations-on-the-new job payment for the hell of it. Unfortunately he got laid off from his new job about a year later. When he applied for unemployment insurance he learned he was only elgible for 90 days since the system only recognizes him as having paid for 1 year. He really regrets getting the money because he didn't need it at the time and didn't fully understand the implications of receiving it. Now that he really needs the money, he's fucked. He would have been eligible for 330 days' payment, BTW.

So, if you've found a job and aren't in dire financial straits, I'd save that shit for when you're really unemployed. Especially if you have a wife and kids.

FYI, for you FGs or Japanese living abroad. If there is a break in payments, they start counting from when you started paying again. Let's say you worked in Japan for ten years, go work in the US for two, and then back to Japan for six months before getting laid off. You only get 90 days. If they counted the the other 10 years, it'd be 180 to 270 days depending on your age.

Japan's system is fucked if you're a PR or a citizen. It's not bad for FGs on working visas like me though. I can stay till my landing permit expires and collect unemployment insurance. Most countries give you a couple of weeks to a couple of months to get a job or get the fuck out.