Unemployment benefit insurance for self-employed

Went to a seminar yesterday for people wanting to set up their own business.

The chap running it told us that as of 1 February, those who are self-employed have the option to pay into the Rentenversicherung for 40 Euros a month (this is a flat rate, regardless of income).

If your business goes bust, you can then claim unemployment benefit. The payments are based on a scale based on your level of education. So, for example, someone with a doctorate and a child could get 1,300 euro per month.

Arbeitsamt Info leaflet (PDF file) here

We all hope that it won't happen - but it is good to have a safety net.

You'll find more info if you google "freiwillige rentenversicherung"

Nice post, shallot...it's good to see actual useful information posted from time to time, haha.

cheers

um yeah but according to the PDF you linked, it's Arbeitslosenversicherung, not Rentenversicherung. Nothing to do with your pension.

Probably the best link for the freiwillige Rentenversicherung is from ueberbrueckungsgeld.de. It does come up as google's first hit, but just fyi, that one has accurate info (though not a government-sponsored site).

Sorry yes, wrote it down wrong. It is Arbeitslosungversicherung. There's supposed to be a good article about it in the Süddeutsche from about 3 weeks ago, but I'm not a subscriber so I don't have a log on.

Thanks for the information Shallot, I will pass this on to a few of my selfemployed nonTT friends.