A significant proportion of employees do not receive the unemployment benefits to which they are nevertheless entitled. This is revealed by a study by the Ministry of Labor sent to Parliament and to which the echoes had access on Monday. According to this work, this non-recourse rate, defined as the proportion of eligible persons who do not open their rights in relation to the total number of eligible persons, ranges from 25 to 42%.
A non-use rate close to that of the RSA
The report’s central estimate notably excludes people who are already covered by unemployment insurance from the analysis. According to this central hypothesis, “about 30% of people aged 25 to 60 who experience the end of their contract in the private sector without being previously registered with Pôle Emploi and who meet the eligibility criteria do not use unemployment insurance “.
The authors note that the non-use of unemployment insurance is thus “close to what can be observed for other benefits”, citing rates of “34% for RSA”, “32% for pensions”.
What profile for non-applicants?
These “non-recoverable” assets have characteristics that are quite similar to those of the beneficiaries, in terms of CSP, age and gender. On the other hand, employees with short contracts, whether fixed-term contracts or temporary contracts, are less represented among applicants than those with permanent contracts.
Job seekers who do not claim compensation have, on average, worked less than recipients and therefore have less substantial unemployment claims. The final point of difference highlighted by the study, return to employment for non-users is faster on average. They are a quarter to return to the labor market in the month following the end of their previous contract, while only 15% of job seekers who benefited find a job so quickly.
A study based on the 2017 eligibility criteria
To achieve this result, researchers from the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Labor (Dares) and the Paris School of Economics focused on the period from November 2018 to October 2019. The effects of Covid and those of the reform of the unemployment benefits rules. since October 2021, therefore, they are not taken into account in this work.
The criteria that are taken into account to qualify eligible people are, therefore, those defined by the Unedic agreement of 2017, which was applied before this reform. To be eligible for unemployment insurance, an employee must have worked four months out of the 28 months prior to termination or contract termination. This condition had to be verified during the previous 36 months for job applicants over 53 years of age. The worker also had to be registered with the Pôle Emploi and be looking for work to receive unemployment benefits.
The authors pointed out that their estimation work encountered several difficulties, including the fact that the administrative data “do not allow us to observe the condition of effective job search” or the fact that “about a third of the people with the purpose of contract” are already covered by unemployment insurance due to their previous contracts.
Source: BFM TV
