This document discusses Latvia's experience with coordinating unemployment benefits under EU regulations. It provides an overview of the relevant EU regulations and decisions, Latvia's national legislation, statistics on unemployment and benefit coordination in Latvia, the process for applying and coordinating benefits, and some problems that have arisen. The State Social Insurance Agency is responsible for international coordination of unemployment benefits in Latvia.

1. Latvian experience and
problems of coordination of
unemployment benefits
Liene Ramane
Social Insurance Department
Ministry of Welfare
trESS seminar RIGA, 19 April 2012
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2. Regulations (EC) Nos.883/2004
and 987/2004
• Regulation (EC) No.883/2004:
– Article 1 – definitions;
– Article 6 – aggregation of periods;
– Articles 61-65 – unemployment benefits;
– Article 76 – cooperation between competent authorities;
• Regulation (EC) No.987/2009:
– Articles 2-5 – exchanging data between institutions and persons;
– Articles 11-12 – determining residence and aggregation of
periods;
– Articles 54-57 – application of unemployment benefits chapter;
– Articles 66-68, 70 & 90 – reimbursement between institutions,
payments, late payments and reimbursement of UB.
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3. Main changes with new Regulations
• UB export is paid by the Competent institution of the MS which
awarded UB;
• UB can be exported for 3 months and this period can be
prolonged to 6 months;
• Unemployed person who previously was a cross-border can make
himself/herself available to Employment Services in the MS of last
activity in addition to Employment Services in the MS of residence;
• For unemployed, whose last activity was in other MS, but
residence is, for example, LV – LV is calculating UB from
insurance contributions made in the MS of last activity;
• MS of last activity reimburse the UB paid by LV for first 3 months,
in some cases for first 5 months.
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4. Decisions and Recommendations of
Administrative Commission
– Decision U1 relating to increases in UB for dependent members of
the family;
– Decision U2 on the right to unemployment benefits of wholly
unemployed persons other than frontier workers who were resident in
the territory of a Member State other than the competent Member
State during their last period of employment or self-employment;
– Decision U3 concerning the scope of the concept of ‘partial
unemployment’ applicable to the unemployed persons;
– Decision U4 concerning the reimbursement procedures under
Article 65(6) and (7) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and Article 70 of
Regulation (EC) No 987/2009;
– Recommendation U1 and Recommendation U2.
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5. Portable documents
• U1 (previously E301) – certifies periods of insurance in
another member state;
• U2 (previously E303) – authorization to export UB for
person concerned;
• U3 – changes in situation, which may need to be taken into
account towards a revision of benefit payments.
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6. National legislation
• Law On Unemployment • Main requirements:
Insurance; - 9 months of unemployment
• On Payment of State insurance contributions
Allowances during the during last 12 months;
Time Period from 2009 to
2014; - person has obtained
• Support for Unemployed unemployed persons status;
Persons and Persons
Seeking Employment
- other requirements.
Law;
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7. Unemployment in Latvia
• In February 2012 in Latvia there were 133 413
unemployed persons or 11.8% of economically
active persons;
• 74 506 or 55.84% from all unemployed are
women;
• More than 42% from all unemployed persons are
in 45+ age group.
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8. Who applies UB coordination in Latvia?
State Social Insurance Agency (SSIA, subordinated to
the Ministry of Welfare):
– International Services Division (issue of portable
documents, check status of unemployed person via
Employment Agency, etc.);
– Territorial Divisions (collects applications for U2).
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9. Statistics of UB coordination
In 2011: In 1st quarter of 2012:
• 230 U1 and U2 issued; • 57 U1 and U2 issued;
• 159 U2 refused; • 35 U2 refused;
• 266 E301 issued; • 64 E301 issued;
• 4 E302 issued;
• 117 E303 received; • 50 E303 received;
• 472 U1 and U2 received. • 35 U1 and U2 received.
LV  Ireland, Germany and UK;
Iceland & Ireland  LV (in most cases - jobseekers who
return back to LV).
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10. Experience of application (I)
Transition to new regulations:
• In April 2010 special UB coordination seminar for
International Services Division;
• In 2010-2012 information provided in yearly seminars for
Territorial Divisions;
• SSIA Internal Instruction for UB coordination;
• Information distributed to EURES experts in yearly
seminars;
• SSIA accepts PD’s, SED’s and E-forms and issues U2
and E-forms, other PD’s if needed.
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11. Experience of application (II)
Unemployed person:
• Fills the application available on-line (at International
Services Division or Territorial Division)  hands in the
application to his Territorial Division  International
Services Division;
• Find the relevant information regarding his/her rights
when looking for a job in web-site of the Ministry of
Welfare, SSIA, Employment Agency + consultation in
person.
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12. Experience of application (III)
Internal process of co-ordination:
• Until now SSIA has no experience in reimbursement of
UB; first claims are received just lately;
• All cases are processed within SSIA’s IT system (SAIS);
• Quarterly reports on application of coordination
instruments; every six months report to the Ministry of
Welfare;
• SSIA is linked with Employment Agency on-line in order
to follow persons employment status and inform
Employment Agency on information received from other
MS.
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13. Experience of application (IV)
Cooperation with other competent institutions:
• Communication via paper E-forms, PD’s and SED’s;
• E-communication, if necessary (e-mails, fax);
• Communication mainly in English and German.
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14. Main problems and questions (I)
• Persons to whom the LV UB is awarded, when moving to
another MS, sometimes “forget” to apply for U2;
• Persons who have been employed in other MS do not
apply for UB in this MS of last activity, as their main goal
is to return to LV, not seek employment in LV;
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15. Main problems and questions (II)
• Cooperation with some MS are quite slow, especially in
such aspect as monthly reports regarding changes in
status of person concerned;
• Application of paragraph 2 and paragraph 5 a) of Article
65 of Regulation No.883/2004: how long employment
period could be viewed as stable employment period?
• Some MS have already reimbursed overpayments of LV
UB, but some have refused the reimbursement on
ground that person concerned would not have right to
UB according to their national legislation (now solved
with AC Decision U4).
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16. Thank you!
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