In September, the number of recipients of earnings-related allowance at A-kassa fell by 3.7% from August. This is surprising because the number typically goes up in September. In September, a total of 20,805 members, or 8.5%, received earnings-related allowance. The share of lay-off period daily allowance recipients remained at nearly the same level, standing at 29.1%, which represents an increase of mere 0.6 percentage points from August. A-kassa’s earnings-related allowance costs also went down in September.
The number of recipients of earnings-related allowance decreased from May to July before increasing slightly in August. Typically, the slight increase continues in September and becomes steeper towards the end of the year. However, this September we saw an exception to this familiar trend as the number kept going down. Even though the decrease was minor, just 3.7%, it will be interesting to see if this development continues. Compared to last year, this year’s recipient numbers have lagged behind by a month, so one might expect the numbers to take an upward turn around October-November. While the number of recipients has been higher than in 2023 each month this year, the difference has narrowed. In September, the number of recipients was only 2.6% higher than last year.
29.1% of all those receiving earnings-related allowance from A-kassa received lay-off period daily allowance, a minor increase of 0.6 percentage points from August. The share of laid-off persons was high at the beginning of the year but has lately remained close to 29%. The share of laid-off persons has usually taken an upward turn after the summer but we are yet to see any real increase. The share of recipients of adjusted daily allowance has remained fairly stable since June, standing at 16.1% in September.
Earnings-related allowance costs down in the autumn
A-kassa’s earnings-related allowance costs have typically increased towards the end of the year, but in August and September the costs were lower than in July. So, we are yet to see the upward turn. Earnings-related allowance payouts for those two months were also lower than during the same period last year, which is unusual when compared with other months. Earnings-related allowance costs totalled 27.1 million euros in September, a decrease of 4.2% from September 2023. October numbers remain to be seen.
The legislative amendments that entered into force in January and April have also had an impact on the decrease in the amount of money paid out. Even though there was a 2.6% increase in the number of recipients of earnings-related allowance compared to September of last year, actual payments amounted to 4.2% less than in 2023. It is likely that the legislative amendments that entered into force in September will reduce the earnings-related allowance costs during the final part of the year.
Members satisfied with our customer service
A-kassa’s phone service received a total of 7,297 calls in September, with an average response time of 3:54 minutes. The average length of a call was 5:37 minutes. Based on our feedback survey, 60% of respondents were highly satisfied and 29% quite satisfied with the service.
We received 4,437 messages via our eService in September, up 11% from August. Our chat service hosted a total of 709 discussions, with an average queuing time of 1:13 minutes and an average discussion length of 12:25 minutes. Based on our chat service feedback survey, 73% of respondents were highly satisfied and 17% quite satisfied with the service.
Monthly statistical summaries are available at the A-kassa website
