What to do if you lose your job

Emergency: call 112. If anyone is in danger or hurt, or there is a fire, safety and a call to 112 come first; everything else can wait.

What to do now

1. Ask for the papers in writing. The notice of termination, your last payslips and what is owed to you. Do not sign anything you do not understand; ask your union or a lawyer.
2. Register as a job seeker and apply for unemployment benefit. Register at the District Labour Office and apply to the Social Insurance Services, also online with CY Login. For employees it is paid from the 4th day of unemployment; the self-employed are not entitled to it.
3. Ask separately about redundancy pay. It is a different thing from unemployment benefit, with its own rules. Ask the Social Insurance Services, your union or an employment lawyer in writing.
4. Before your last day, ask about group schemes. Group life and health cover usually ends with the job, together with your family’s cover. Ask whether there is a continuation option, until when and without medical evidence. Ask what happens to the provident fund too.
5. Talk to the bank before you miss an instalment. Ask for your options in writing. If the loan has unemployment cover, read from when it pays and what it excludes.
6. Do not cut your own policies in a hurry. First ask about a smaller sum insured, a break in contributions or a paid-up policy. Cover cut today is bought again later at the age and health you will have then.

Who to call

• The District Labour Office, to register as a job seeker.
• The Social Insurance Services, about unemployment benefit and redundancy pay.
• The Department of Labour Relations, if you disagree with how your employment ended; it also takes complaints online.
• HR about group schemes, your bank about loans, and your insurer or advisor about your own policies.
• The services’ phone numbers and websites, checked on their official pages, are on the Who to contact page.

Documents and details you will need

• ID card or alien registration certificate and your social insurance number.
• The notice of termination and your last payslips.
• Bank account details for the benefit to be paid into.
• Your group scheme certificates and anything HR gives you in writing.
• Your loan agreements, the terms of any loan insurance and a list of your own policies with what they cost.

Deadlines

• Apply for the benefit without delay, and ask the Social Insurance Services how long you have to claim.
• A continuation option on a group scheme, where there is one, usually has a short deadline: ask before you leave.

What to avoid

• Do not surrender or cancel a policy before asking for all the options in writing; in the early years the surrender value is usually small.
• Do not leave the mortgage without life cover for a single day.
• Do not wait for arrears to build up before talking to the bank.

With all the rules and their sources: Made redundant or laid off: what the state gives, I lost my job or I’m in debt: what do I keep? and Group schemes: what happens when I leave. Tools: emergency fund and what does it cost me to stop now?

Print this page Keep it in the glovebox or with your home papers.

This guide is general information, not legal, medical or insurance advice. Deadlines and documents are set by the terms of each policy and by the services involved.

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