i’m an out of work EFL teacher.

i’ve signed on only once in my working life (10 years) at the end of last year due to the construction industry going tits up. then i fecked off to germany and started work over here. i hated it. shitty working conditions.

anyways, i quit the job in december. they have a rule here that if you make yourself jobless you can’t sign on for three months. that time is up and despite having a teaching qualification and having looked for work i’m still unemployed.

should i sign on? it’s a shitty feeling knowing your unable to stand alone but taxes are so fricking high here i feel that i’d at least be getting back a tiny amount of what i put in…..

na mach schon, Junge

Yes. You paid in, so why not take back?

Don’t know what it’s like over there, but there are some jobs over here that you won’t be considered for until you’ve been signed on for 6 months.

6 months? crazy.

Germany seem to be very generous when it comes to social hand-outs.

just find it a bit crappy….

Honestly, I don’t understand why some people have problems regarding signing on.

You pay your money into the system whilst you’re earning, so that it can look after you (or attempt to) when you’re unfortunate enough to be out of a job yourself.

Signed on the day I became unemployed. It’s not nice being unemployed, but whilst you’re looking for a new job you may as well take the £60.50 per week being offered to you! Some countries would kill for a benefits system like ours (and don’t we know it), so take advantage of it whilst you’re in need of the help. It may not be much money, but you’d be stupid not to take it in my opinion.

Can’t wait to get off benefits and back into a bloody job myself though!

EDIT: Sorry, just read again and realised you’re in Germany. Still sign on though, you pay your taxes when earning etc. Part of those taxes you pay go towards benefits. So it’s only fair that you claim benefits at some point in reality.

Exactly. I didn’t sign on last year because I thought I’d get a job in no time. 6 months later, no job.

Do it, do it now.

A lot of the people who have spent the last few years claiming that suigning on is for parasites will be changing their tune over the next couple of years. Sign on and do not worry about it.

Sign on when you need to – I think it protects your state pension rights as well

sign on, thats why you have been paying in for all those years.

Do it alpin.

It’ll give you a bit of money, don’t what they pay in Germany, which you’ll be entitled to like you are over here.

I signed on a week or so after getting made redundant but I’ll probably be signing-off next week as I’ve managed to get some freelance training work.

Best of luck mate.

To me, it would be abit like paying for car insurance then deciding not to claim as it seems ‘crass’ to claim. See my point?

You pay N.I contributions and taxes for many reasons, this is one of them.

In London I once signed on, it was the most humiliating experience- I even had a bit of a go at the person dealing with me for making me feel bad. All the idiots in there (Kilburn job centre) seemed to have English as a second language

You need to sign on, when you do (as well as getting the £60 a week) the social pay your national insurance contributions so your state pension is not affected, if you dont sign on you dont get your NI paid (unless you do it yourself) and you’ll a gap in your NI payments which could ultimately lead to your state pension being reduced.

yeah, don’t forget though that i’m in germany…..

so i went along to the arbeits amt (job centre). got told that because i’ve only worked six months of 12 and not 12 of 24 months i’m not entitled to anything.

i have to get hold of an E301 form and see if the UK will stump up some cash. seems like i’ve fallen into no-mans-land.

silly because if i hadn’t stopped my Jobseekers before leaving the UK, the UK would have continued to pay it despite me being out of the country.

looks like i’m going to entering a maze of beaurocracy. think forms, now think german analness for forms and paperwork.

oh, and i’ve already fallen behind on two years NI. one year in Oz ages ago and then two years when work was real sluggish (self-employed).

oh, and in germany if you are self-employed you’renot entitled any arbeitslösigkeitsgeld (dole money) despite paying in 55% tax on what you [strike]put through the books[/strike] earn.

anyone had any experience of this E301 form/process? it’s a european wide thing but the decision as to whether or not i get the dosh lies with germany, not the UK – even though the UK stumps up the cash.

bugger….