The document discusses Lithuania's experience coordinating unemployment benefits across EU/EEA countries as required by EU regulations, including statistics on benefit coordination, the roles of Lithuanian institutions in the process, challenges faced including differences in benefit calculations and slow communication with other countries' institutions. It also provides details on Lithuania's internal processes and systems for handling benefit coordination cases.

1. Organisation and coordination of a network on the EU
coordination of social security schemes in EU/EEA/CH
training and reporting on
European Social Security
trESS III
The Lithuanian experience of coordination of
unemployment benefits
Vytautas Juršėnas
Lithuanian Labour Exchange under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour
Republic of Lithuania
2012

2. Contents
• Competent institutions
• Legal base
• Statistics
• Our experience
• Jobseekers
• Internal system
• Using EURES
• Institutions of member states
• Main issues

3. Competent institutions (1)
• Lithuanian Labour Exchange under the
Ministry of Social Security and Labour
(tasks: to communicate with member
states (MS), to coordinate).
• 10 Local Labour Exchanges (to communicate with MS,
to admit jobseekers, to create the forms - certificates
U PD, E series, SEDs).
• 45 branches of those 10 Labour Exchanges (to admit
jobseekers).

4. Competent institutions (2)
• EURES service is a division in Lithuanian Labour
Exchange. EURES provides information about
living and working conditions in MS, spreads
information about vacancies in other MS.
• 10 EURES advisers work in all Local Labour
Exchanges (free of charge, no registration
needed).
• From 01 10 2010 Lithuanian EURES service deals
with the coordination of unemployment insurance
benefits (applying European Social Security
regulations, issuing forms, etc.).

5. Legal base (EU/international law)
• EC Regulations № 883/2004, № 987/2009.
• EEC Regulations № 1408/71, № 574/72.
• Another relevant Regulations (№ 859/2003, № 780/2009,
№ 1231/2010).
• Administrative Commission decisions and
recommendations,
– Decision U4 (concerning reimbursement procedures).

6. Legal base (national law)
• Labour Code
• Law on Unemployment Social Insurance
• Law on Support for Employment
• An instruction for implementation of Social Security
Regulations regarding unemployment benefits (with annexes -
application forms), latest version is valid since 2011.
• Descriptions of duties for EURES advisers and other employees.
• A special memo for the person who exports his or her
unemployment benefit.

7. Unemployment social insurance benefit in Lithuania
• Main requirement of the application for
unemployment social insurance benefit (in national
law) in Lithuania is at least 18 months of
unemployment insurance during the last 36 months.
• There are additional requirements.
• Usually the benefit belongs to an unemployed
person after 8 days of registration.
• In most cases benefit is paid for 6 months. Amount
varies from 650 to 350 Lt per month (188 EUR – 101
EUR).

8. Unemployment statistics
• 242,1 thousand unemployed (11,71% of the
workforce) as of 5th April 2012 (slow decrease,
further expected).
• 38318 unemployment social insurance
benefits being paid as of end of March 2012
(for approx. 16 % of registered persons).

9. Coordination statistics (1)
2011:
•289 forms issued, 401 received
(insurance periods).
•274 forms issued, 189 received
(benefit export).
•91 forms issued (family members)
2012 first quarter:
•106 forms issued, 155 received
(insurance periods)
•75 forms issued, 29 received (benefit
export)
•8 forms issued (family members)

10. Coordination statistics (2)
Data about former Lithuanian unemployment insurance periods is
mostly required by:
•Ireland, Germany, Norway, Spain.
MS that receive the most applications from us:
•The United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Denmark.
Forms are needed mostly for jobseekers aged 26-35 (almost 50 %).
We issue more forms for females, but receive more forms
regarding males.

11. Our experience: transition to the new Regulations
A special seminar for the employees of our 45 local offices
was held in April 2010.
Since the beginning of this adoption:
•We accept all the forms (U PD series, SEDs, E series) or related
documents, if the information is correct and understandable.
•We are able to send all related forms (but still prefer to use E
301).

12. Our experience: jobseekers
• Jobseekers may receive the needed forms in any of our 45
branches; they may also provide their documents in any of
them.
• An email is sufficient to apply for a form concerning the work
and unemployment insurance periods (E 301, U1 PD).
• We support the opinion that a jobseeker may choose to ignore
his latest work or insurance period in another MS, if that gives
an advantage for him.
• We have a webpage dedicated to the relevant information.

13. Our experience: internal system
• Local Labour Exchanges are allowed to exchange the needed
forms and documents with the MS institutions directly.
• Local Labour Exchanges may reimburse amounts directly for
the MS institutions. MS institutions make transfers to
Lithuanian Labour Exchange.
• We have an internal online database, where the central
institution can track all relevant cases.
• We collect the relevant data regarding the implementation of
Social Security Regulations every quarter.

14. Our experience: using EURES
Using EURES network for unemployment benefit coordination
ensures:
•Good internal communication, quick problem identification and
solving.
•Ability to share the experience more easily, as well as introduce
new employees to the work.
•We may easier receive help from MS EURES advisers.
EURES advisers are well suited to help the jobseeker who came
from another MS, or is going to it. They also are more capable to
provide a sufficient service for a foreign jobseeker (who cannot
speak Lithuanian).

15. Our experience with MS institutions
• We communicate in English, and also in German,
French, Spanish, if needed.
• When needed, we issue forms in another languages.
• We prefer to contact by email.
• We need to receive the signed and stamped forms by
post, but we also ask foreign institutions to send the
forms by fax or email simultaneously.

16. Main issues (1)
Concerning the EEC Regulation № 1408/71 Article 70
(benefit export, forms E 303)
•Differences in calculations in reimbursement cases
Responsibility for bank transfers costs in
reimbursement cases.
•Long periods to wait for reimbursement.
•Information about family members are not our
sphere.

17. Main issues (2)
• Slow communication with MS.
• Some MS institutions are not familliar with the
rights, granted by the Social Security Regulations.
• Implementation of Regulation № 883/2004 Article
65.
• Implementation of Regulation № 987/2009 Article
72 (not likely to be used successfully because of
restrictions in our national laws).
• Collecting the information about jobseeker’s family
members.

18. Main issues (3)
• Missing or erroneous information in forms or
applications.
• More paperwork because of prolonged need
to keep using the paper SED forms (intended
to be online forms).
• The jobseekers still lack the information about
their rights to apply for the unemployment
benefit in the last MS of their activity.