Does anyone have experience of RAV unemployment benefit & how it is calculated?

My wife was made redundant end June 2020.
She registered with the RAV & started to look for jobs start April (& sent evidence to RAV) i.e. 3 months before job finished
Her last working day was 30 June
She was informed that, because of redundancy payment, she would start to receive unemployment benefit from 6 October.
Mid November she received a statement from Syna (finance arm of RAV) that showed a further 15 days benefit had been deducted.
So after looking for jobs for 7 months & being unemployed for 4 months, she has received 4 days unemployment benefit!!

Is this correct? How can she check it?

The statement does not mention AHV. Does RAV / Syna make the AHV contributions while she is unemployed?
Will this be from the point she was unemployed (30 June) or from the point they started to pay unemployment benefit (6 October or 6 October + 15 days)?

Thanks for your help

Sounds correct.

Tom

Do you have children? Because there is a maximum number of penalty days they can add if that is the case. My fiancé had this issue with Syna that they insisted he prove the child was in school (despite being of compulsory school age) then rejecting the proof, then accepting the proof, then saying he does not have children so only gets 70% and can be given maximum penalty days.

The other thing he found was complaining only made things worse (they ‘never received’ his I’m still unemployed form for the first month, despite them having forwarded the job search form he sent by mistake to his RAV advisor, and would not even acknowledge his complaints, but luckily his RAV advisor did not go over and above had a go and he got the money the next day.... but never any acknowledgment of the ‘loss’).

But, no kids, yes, they can deduct many more penalty days depending on your previous pay and your redundancy package. Let’s face it, ALK is meant to see you through whilst you are looking and not getting paid, and redundancy money, and higher wages, mean that you should already have a buffer. (Kids eat buffer).

Also, was that 3/4 months gardening leave or was she unemployed unemployed? Because he got nothing during gardening leave as he was still getting a wage.

At this link are RAV FAQs in English. The answer to Q11 explains the waiting days concept:

https://www.arbeit.swiss/secoalv/en/...edien/faq.html

Syna, the compensation fund (Kasse) your spouse selected as the RAV payroll, should normally deduct AHV and it should appear on the monthly statement (Abrechnung).

At this link, posts 32 and 29, are translations of monthly compensation fund statements:

https://www.englishforum.ch/employme...nslated-2.html

Good luck to your spouse with her job search!

Sounds about right - you can't 'double-dip' - if she received a severance pay (redundancy) then that money covers her working hours until a point, then there is a transition period, then she starts with the insurance payments if needed.


And others have said, good luck for your wife's job searching. It's tough at the best of times...

I'm a bit confused now. On another post, started by me, everyone seems to indicate that this is not the case, except for amounts above 110-130K.

https://www.englishforum.ch/employme...ckage-rav.html

Can someone clarify?

AFAIK and from what I was told at the time, this only counts if your redundancy package is over a certain amount. CHF 150k or something?

Regarding a severance payment and its possible influence on RAV unemployment compensation, Beobachter writes (translated):

"Severance pay is a voluntary benefit from your employer. Such voluntary benefits have no effect on unemployment benefits up to an amount of CHF 148'200. This means that although the severance payment cushions your unemployment and thus serves the same purpose as unemployment insurance for the first three months, your entitlement to unemployment benefit is neither postponed nor reduced. Only those who receive more than CHF 148'200 are not considered unemployed as long as the amount above this does not cover the previous monthly wage.

However, voluntary benefits should not be confused with wage or compensation payments due to premature termination. Such payments postpone the entitlement to unemployment benefit."

https://www.beobachter.ch/arbeit/arb...igung-stempeln