Return-to-work benefit

What rights to unemployment after a contract of alternation?

Publié le 27 août 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Work-linked contracts (apprenticeships and professionalization) are specific employment contracts; they combine theoretical training at school or university with acquisition within a company of know-how on a job. At the end of an apprenticeship or professionalization contract, it is possible to receive unemployment benefit and return-to-work assistance under certain conditions.

As an alternate, you are bound by an employment contract to your company, as are all other employees. Similarly, just as they pay you for unemployment. You therefore have the same access to unemployment benefit and return-to-work assistance (ARE) as other employees.

To collect the RARE you must:

  • have worked at least 6 months (130 days or 910 hours) in the last 24 months;
  • not to have voluntarily left your position;
  • actively seeking employment;
  • be physically fit for work;
  • live in a territory covered by unemployment insurance (mainland France, overseas departments outside Mayotte, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin).

Please note

You can receive the return-to-work assistance allowance:

  • when your apprenticeship or professionalization contract has expired and you find yourself unemployed;
  • whether your apprenticeship or professionalization contract was terminated before its expiry by mutual agreement between you and your employer;
  • if your apprenticeship contract has been terminated by decision of the labor board.

What steps should be taken to collect unemployment benefit?

To receive the Return to Employment Assistance Benefit, you must register for France Labor ; you can register within 12 months of losing your job but it is advisable to do so the day after the last day of your contract.

In particular, you must provide:

  • a copy of your salary slips;
  • the employer attestation for France Travail, which was sent to you at the end of your contract;
  • a copy of an identity document.

The amount of your return-to-work assistance allowance depends on the salary you received during your apprenticeship or professionalization contract; this amount is calculated on the basis of a reference daily wage. You can use the simulator of France travail to estimate the amount of your RARE.

As with any employee who finds himself unemployed, your compensation does not start at the end of your employment contract but after a waiting period of 7 days. This period may be extended if you have received:

  • an allowance in lieu of paid leave (a sum of money paid by your company when you have paid leave not taken at the end of your employment contract);
  • an indemnity for breach of contract exceeding the minimum provided for in the Labor Code.

The length of time you can collect the RCA varies depending on the duration of your alternance contract, but in any case it cannot exceed 2 years (730 days).

FYI  

At the end of your apprenticeship or professionalization contract, if you are not hired by your employer, the employer must give you:

  • a work certificate;
  • an employer certificate intended for France Travail;
  • a receipt for the balance of any account;
  • a summary statement of all amounts and securities on your payroll savings plan, if such a mechanism is in place in the company.

Please note

Like all persons receiving a return-to-work allowance, former apprentices or holders of a professionalization contract may use the right of option ; however, specific arrangements are laid down for former alternants.

The right of option allows a beneficiary to apply for a new right to the ERA when his previous rights have not been exhausted; this allows him to receive a higher allowance. A recipient can thus exercise his right of option when he has exercised and lost one or more new, better-paid jobs. Under the right of option principle, both the new amount of the AER and the new duration of compensation are calculated on the basis of the most recent, better-paid jobs.

In order to exercise the right of option, it is necessary to:

  • the amount of the daily allowance, at the time of the previous entitlement to the AER, is less than or equal to EUR 20;
  • or their remaining ‘rights capital’ is 30 % less than their potential rights capital.

These 2 conditions for the use of the right of option do not apply to former apprentices and former holders of a professionalization contract; they enjoy the right of option without conditions linked to their previous daily allowance or their rights capital.

On the other hand, each beneficiary wishing to use the right of option must have worked at least 130 days or 910 hours (i.e. 6 months) since the opening of his previous right to benefit from the ARE.

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