Unemloyment in Spain

I would like to know if anyone has been throught the Unemployment hoop here in Spain and been successful in getting registered as unemployed?

The situation here is a couple of years as a bona fide employee, Social Security paid followed by a period of 4 years self employed (Autonomo). Now unemployed (due to the recession) I need to get into the system for unemployment to A) Keep up pension credits B) Keep my Sanitario card valid and C) maybe get some money.

After 2 trips to my local Unemployment Office (El Palo, Malaga) I have been A) Flatly refused help or advice B) Given advice on which hoops to go thru that were red herrings!

I understand I need to apply for an INEM Tarjeta (INEM Card) from my local office as above. So that I am armed with the correct questions and documents, has anyone else been in this position that would be able to advise? Once I have the card, all the other benefits as listed above fall into place (just as in the UK).

Many thanks.

Gazzer

It may vary ,region to region, but I don't think so but here autonomo payments are for health & pension & do not entitle you to any unemployment benefits. ( Same as the UK ) Friends of ours were self-employed for over 8 years & received nothing. The employed part  wouldn't count as it was before your autonomo.

You should be able to just walk in to the SeF office ( that's what it's called here ) Servicio Regional de Empleo & Formación & register as a ' Demandante '. Once registered you'll receive a ' Documento acreditativo de Demanda ' , which needs to be stamped on a regular basis .You don't register at the INEM office for soc.sec. nor at the social security office where you apply for your number but at the unemployment office. That's all my wife did although it took a while to find the office.

 Thank you guslopez.

I understood that the autonomo period was not counted towards unemployment but it is not an issue of monetary benefit but the upkeep of pension points and sanitary card maintenance.

Thank you for the correct terms that we should use in the INEM office. I would think they would be the same nationally as these offices are "Agencias" by region.

Our town has no unemployment office but has an electronic machine in the Ayuntamiento to which you have to report on a regular basis. First we have to go to El Palo (Malaga)  to register.

Muchas gracias!

I think you have 14 days from the end of your employment, to sign on the dole.  At least that's how it is in Andalucia as I understand it.

So I don't think you could claim dole now. 

 Hi, you won´t lose your entitlement to health care. Regional legislation passed in 2009  entended coverage indefinitely to anyone in a situation of "baja" from any of the social regimes.

Fraid the autonomos get a pretty rough deal and I don´t think there´s anything else other than health care.

Money is not the issue here, just the Health part. It's a valuable asset to living here so making the effort to get "signed on" has got to be worth it.

You can "sign on" as of European right without even doing a days work, INEM (or more accurately the Civil Servant) might not like it and will (as we have experienced) fob you off (as IF it's their money they are giving away).

So we've paid in, we want something back for it until another job comes along and the healthcare part of it is sufficient.

The jobs are out there but nobody wants to take you on officially because of the cost.

We did get advice from a legal beagle that "No, they wont cancel your health card".......yes they (Junta) did.