Unemployment Allowance for ESI beneficiaries

In developed countries, generally when a citizen loses his/her job they are entitled to unemployment allowance till he/she gets a new job.

India now, too has a scheme to this effect known as “Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana”.The Scheme provides security to the jobless workers insured under the Employee’s State Insurance (ESI) Scheme, who have paid minimum 3 years contributions prior to the loss of employment. The allowance for a period of one year during entire service is to be paid at the rate of 50 percent of the last drawn salary. An eligible person can avail the allowance at a stretch or in different spells of unemployment. But no such spell should be of less than one month’s duration.

Such involuntary unemployment may result out of retrenchment or closure of factory/establishment or permanent disablement of which at least 40 percent arising out of non-employment injury.