Employment Insurance

Unemployment benefits are payments made by the state or other authorized bodies to unemployed people. Benefits may be based on a compulsory para-governmental insurance system. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be meager, covering only basic needs thus a form of basic welfare , or may compensate the lost pay somewhat proportionally to the previous earned salary. They often are part of a larger social security scheme.

Unemployment benefits are generally given only to those registering as unemployed, and often on conditions ensuring that they seek work and do not currently have a job.

In some countries, a significant proportion of unemployment benefits are distributed by trade labor unions, an arrangement known as the Ghent system.

In Argentina, successive administrations have used a variety of passive and active labor market interventions to protect workers against the consequences of economic shocks and the government's key institutional response to combat the increase in poverty and unemployment created by the crisis was the launch of an active unemployment assistance program called Plan Jefas y Jefes de Hogar Desocupados Program for Unemployed Heads of Households .

In Australia, social security benefits, including unemployment benefits, are funded through the income tax system. There is no compulsory national unemployment insurance fund, rather, benefits are provided for in the annual Federal Budget by the National Treasury and are administrated and distributed throughout the nation by Centrelink. Benefit rates are indexed to the Consumer Price Index and are adjusted twice a year according to the amount of underlying inflation or deflation.