Unemployment benefits

A job seeker is entitled to an unemployment social insurance benefit (commonly known as an unemployment benefit or nedarbo išmoka). If you lose your job, you must contact the Employment Service (ES) – only after you have registered with the Employment Service and obtained unemployment status, you will be able to apply for unemployment insurance benefits.

You can entitled to receive the unemployment benefit if:

  • You have been insured by unemployment insurance, i.e. you have been working and you personally paid the unemployment social insurance contributions or they were paid for you;
  • You are registered at your ES.
  • You are provided with an unemployed person’s status at the decision of the employment service.
  • The ES did not offer you proper employment or active labour market policy measures.
  • During the last 30 months before registering at the employment service, you had at least a 12-month unemployment insurance record.
  • You have finished the primary military service or alternative national defence service, during which you received the primary military readiness level and registered at the employment service not later than 6 months after your release from the service.

If a person has not worked 12 months in Lithuania in the last 30 months but has completed the same period in another EU/EEA, Switzerland or UK, he/she may present a statement on unemployment insurance periods from a competent body of the previous State of employment = the form  PD U1. Upon submission of such a statement, the unemployment insurance period acquired abroad will be taken into account in Lithuania.

If such a statement is not delivered, a person is required to submit to the Lithuanian SoDra the documents proving his work record in another member state. The relevant bodies administering social benefits in different states will contact each other to obtain the data required (It may take up to several months, therefore it is recommended to request the issue of such a statement from the competent authority before leaving a foreign country).

If you receive an unemployment benefit within the EU/EEA, UK or Switzerland, you have the right to come to Lithuania to look for a job and are entitled to receive an unemployment benefit from abroad during a job-search period (exporting unemployment benefit to Lithuania).

You may receive an unemployment benefit for at least another period of 3 months from the EU member state, the ES of which you are registered with, but have come to Lithuania to look for a job, if:

  • you are entitled to an unemployment benefit in the country where you became unemployed;
  • you are registered as a job seeker with the ES of the country where you became unemployed at least 4 weeks ago;
  • you applied to the national ES requesting the issue of a permit to export your unemployment benefit (a (portable) unemployment benefit export document is U2 PD);
  • upon coming to Lithuania, you have registered in the ES within 7 days.

The unemployment benefit will be paid for 9 months to everyone satisfying the conditions for receipt. In certain cases, payments may be extended. Unemployment benefits will cease to be paid from the date you find work or become self-employed.

What am I entitled to and how can I claim it?

Unemployment benefit is calculated as the sum of a fixed part and a variable part. The fixed part consists of State-supported income amounting to EUR 195,47 which is the same for everyone.

The variable part takes into account unemployment insurance contributions. The variable part of the benefit is 38,79% of the average monthly insured income of the unemployed for the first 3 months; 31,03% for the next 3 months and 23,27% for the following 3 months. The average monthly insured income of the unemployed is calculated over the 30 months before registration with the local labour exchange.

The maximum unemployment benefit cannot exceed 58.18% of the national average monthly wages published by the Lithuanian Department of Statistics (including wage data of individual enterprises), which was valid in the calendar quarter that was before the previous calendar quarter from the date of registration with the ES. The maximum unemployment benefit for persons having registered with the ES in the 1st quarter of 2024 is 1167,03 €.

Applications for payments should be addressed to the district office of the Employment Service.

Read more about unemployment benefits

Source: Sodra

Information updated: 2024-02-15
MENU

Toll-free numbers:

Calling from outside Lithuania (regular rate):

MENU

Toll-free numbers:

Calling from outside Lithuania (regular rate):