Government Improves Additional Income Rule for AMS Training

The new regulation of the Unemployment Insurance Act, which is supposed to prevent unemployed people from supplementing their unemployment benefits or emergency assistance with additional earnings from January, needs to be corrected. The regulation would have also prevented minor additional earnings during participation in training. This would have affected recipients of the AMS nursing scholarship or participants in specialized courses.

"That was not intended," it was said on Thursday

"That was not intended," it was said on Thursday to the APA from the Ministry of Labor, Health, Social Affairs, and Care. Therefore, they are currently working on a corresponding amendment "that creates an exception to the restriction of minor additional earnings during retraining and further training lasting four months or more." The draft for an initiative application has already been prepared and is currently being coordinated with the coalition partners.

The "Kronen Zeitung" reported on the issue on Thursday. Without the corresponding exception, people who are marginally employed during longer AMS training would be excluded from receiving benefits in the future. According to the ministry, this would have affected more than 3,000 people, including many participants in nursing scholarships and specialized courses. There is already an exception for the skilled worker scholarship that allows parallel minor employment.

Additional Earnings for the Unemployed Allowed Only in Exceptional Cases from January

Unemployed persons will only be allowed to supplement their unemployment benefits or emergency assistance with additional earnings in exceptional cases from 2026. This year, they can still earn up to 551.10 euros monthly without losing entitlements. Exempt from the new regulation effective from January are, for example, long-term unemployed over 50 years old or persons with a disability of at least 50 percent.

Greens Welcome Change, But Demand More

The labor and social spokesperson of the Greens, Markus Koza, described the announced correction as "welcome" in a statement. "That the government is now relenting here is good, but it can only be a first step towards a fundamental revision of the additional earnings regulations." Koza recalled, for example, the protests of cultural workers against the ban on additional earnings during unemployment. Exceptions are also needed here. The employment histories of cultural workers are often characterized by project work, temporary engagements, and in between, phases of unemployment. Overall, Koza finds the ban on additional earnings - apart from some exceptions - "not very well thought out."

(APA/Red)

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