How does business activity affect your unemployment benefits?

16.03.2026

Small-scale business activity does not prevent you from being a member of the PAM Unemployment Fund or from receiving earnings-related allowance. However, if you are about to start a business, we recommend checking how it affects your fund membership and your eligibility for unemployment benefits.

What should I do if I start a business?

Notify the employment authority in your municipality or employment region about your business activity. If you start a business while unemployed, the business activity is automatically considered part-time for the first four months. After this period, the employment authority will assess whether your business activity is full-time or part-time.

Part-time or full-time entrepreneurship?

If your business activity is considered part-time, you may be eligible for earnings-related allowance. Income from your business will affect the amount of the benefit in the same way as wages from part-time work.

You are not eligible to unemployment benefits during periods of full-time entrepreneurship. The employment authority determines whether your business activity is full-time or part-time.

Employee fund or entrepreneur fund?

If you become a full-time entrepreneur, it is recommended to join the Entrepreneur Fund.

When you transfer your membership from an employee fund to the Entrepreneur Fund within one month of starting full-time entrepreneurship, your eligibility to earnings-related allowance will remain uninterrupted. The transfer must occur within one month of leaving your previous fund. Membership fees to the previous fund must be paid up to the date of resignation.

The work requirement for entrepreneurs is 15 months, and you can accrue the requirement only while being a member of the Entrepreneur Fund. If your eligibility to earnings-related allowance has remained uninterrupted and you become unemployed before fulfilling the entrepreneur work requirement, your benefit will be paid at the level it would have been in your previous fund.

If you do not join the Entrepreneur Fund while working as a full-time entrepreneur, you may remain a member of an employee fund for up to 18 months. If your business activity ends before that, you can continue your membership in the employee fund, and any earnings-related allowance will be calculated based on your wages prior to becoming an entrepreneur.

Make sure you are insured in the right fund

You can only be a member of one unemployment fund at a time. It is important to make sure that you are insured in the appropriate fund according to your situation.

Further information on membership in the Unemployment Fund of Service Union United

Further information on unemployment security for entrepreneurs