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Requirements for benefits

To receive unemployment benefits, you must be registered at Arbetsförmedlingen, looking for and able to take a job. You must also meet the income condition.

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  • Utropstecken

    Old rules apply if you received a decision before October 1

    If you received a decision before October 1, 2025 and still have benefit days left, you will continue to follow the old rules. Read about the old rules.

How to qualify for unemployment benefits

To be eligible for benefits, you must:

  • Be at least 20 years old
  • Be registered with the Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen)
  • Be actively looking for work and able to take a job
  • Meet an income condition during the qualification period.


You meet the income condition if you during the qualification period have earned:

  • a total of at least SEK 120 000
  • at least SEK 11 000 in at least four separate months.

What does … mean?

Qualification period

The qualification period is the 12 months we look at to determine if you are eligible for benefits. It is usually 12 months before you applied for benefits. If you have not worked due to, for example, illness, parental leave, or full-time studies, we can look further back to see if you qualify.

If your total income is less than SEK 120 000

If your total income is below SEK 120 000, you may still fulfill the income requirement through an alternative rule. To qualify this way, you must have earned at least SEK 11 000 in four consecutive months during the qualification period.

If you fulfill the alternative rule, we will use a standard monthly income of SEK 10 000 to calculate your benefit, no matter how much you actually earned.

How long can I receive benefits?

The number of benefit days you get depends on how many months you earned at least SEK 11 000:

  • 11 months or more: 300 benefit days
  • 8–10 months: 200 benefit days
  • 4–7 months: 100 benefit days

If you qualify through the alternative rule, you will get 66 benefit days, regardless of how many months you earned SEK 11 000.

All income registered with the Swedish Tax Agency counts

We get your income details directly from the Swedish Tax Agency, so all registered income is included in the income requirement. You can also include certain benefits from the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan), like parental or sick pay. If you have been self-employed, we will look at the income you paid tax on in previous years.

We can skip months to see if you fulfill the income requirement

Sometimes we can include income from more than 12 months ago, for example if you have been studying full-time, been on parental leave, or sick.

We can skip a month when both of these apply:

  • You earned less than SEK 11 000 that month
  • More than half the month was covered by something we can skip (like illness or parental leave)

But there are exceptions where we can skip a month regardless of your income or how much of the month qualifies to be excluded. In these cases, we will skip months if it gives you a higher benefit:

  • You finished a full-time education.
  • You ended your own business within 60 months of when you started it.
  • You had a short-time work.
  • You received student finance for transition and retraining part-time

How much can I get?

Your benefit depends on your previous income and how long you have been a member of an unemployment insurance fund:

Member for at least 12 months

You can receive 80 percent of your previous income if you have been a member for at least 12 consecutive months. In some cases, you need to have been a member for a longer period. This applies if we have skipped months due to, for example, full-time studies and parental leave.

Member for the past 6 months

You can receive 60 percent of your previous income if you have been a member for the past 6 months. In some cases, you need to have been a member for a longer period. This applies if we have skipped months due to, for example, full-time studies and parental leave. Additionally, you must have earned at least SEK 11 000 in at least 4 months during your membership.

Member for less than 6 months or not a member at all

If you are not a member of an unemployment insurance fund or have been a member for less than 6 months, you will receive 50 percent of your previous income. This also applies to you if you have been a member for a longer period but do not meet the conditions for 80 or 60 percent.

The cap is SEK 34 000

The highest income we can base your benefit on is SEK 34 000. That means the maximum benefit is 80 percent of SEK 34 000, which is SEK 27 200. If you qualify through the alternative rule, we will use a standard income of SEK 10 000 to calculate your benefit.

If you are not a member of an unemployment fund

If you are not a member of Alfa-kassan or any other unemployment fund, you can get 50 percent of the income you had during the qualification period.

Income, illness, and other factors affect your benefit

If you are fully unemployed during the month, you will get benefits for 22 days. If you had income, were sick, on parental leave, or had other hindrances, your payment will be reduced. Even weekends count. For each day with a hindrance, we subtract 1/22 from the monthly amount you would have received if you were fully unemployed.

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Your benefit decreases over time

No matter how much you get, your benefit will gradually decrease:

  • After 100 benefit days, your benefit level drops by 10 percentage points
  • After 200 benefit days, it drops by another 5 percentage points