The independent candidate for Chile Vamos, Sebastián Sichel, together with Corporación Sumamos, have launched a series of measures to contain the economic burden of families, a product of the quarantine, making the coverage of Unemployment Insurance more efficient.
Sichel specified that “the Unemployment Insurance must be made more efficient and its coverage expanded, asking for four specific measures: ensuring the extraordinary support that the Unemployment Insurance has been given due to crisis until December; increase the amounts and transfers of the same Unemployment Insurance, extending up to 90% the first month and 70% the rest of the months; access help without limit of terms, that the suspension of the contract can be extended as long as necessary; and, furthermore, initiate an active training process to prepare workers to return to employment or seek employment. There are four super-specific measures that depend on administrative decisions but are urgent: expand use, expand withdrawals, expand coverage and start preparing workers for return to employment ”.
Sebastián Sichel’s proposal
Secure aid until September with an extension until December: extend benefits and benefits of Law 21,227 on Employment Protection and Law 21,263 that temporarily makes access to unemployment insurance more flexible until September, extendable until December.
This measure will make it possible to maintain the possibility of applying work suspension by act or declaration of the authority or by suspension agreement agreed between the parties, the relaxation of the requirements for access to unemployment insurance, the improvement of the benefits of said insurance and the extension of the validity of the protected parenting law.
Increase the amount of the transfers from the Individual Unemployment Account: Currently the replacement rate for the first month starts at 70%, the second month decreases to 55% and from the sixth month it falls to 45% or 50% depending on the fund.
The Presidential candidate proposes to increase the amount of the transfers, where the first by 90% and the following by 70%. It must be applied without limits for transfers from the individual unemployment account and maintaining higher and lower values for transfers from the Solidarity Severance Fund.
Unlimited access to help for those who have exhausted their funds in an individual Unemployment account and are still unemployed: For all workers who exhausted the funds in their individual accounts during the pandemic, grant the benefit of drawing from the solidarity unemployment fund without time limit while laws 21,227 and 21,263 are in force. This implies temporarily eliminating the current limits of 7 transfers for unemployed persons and those who have their work contracts suspended by agreement between the parties and of 15 transfers for those who have them suspended by act or declaration of authority.
Prepare workers through an active employment policy plan: prepare as soon as possible a plan for active post-pandemic employment policies, which complements hiring subsidies with new training, retraining and assistance programs for the unemployed. For this purpose, it seeks to convene a cross-sectional group of experts, with the purpose of designing and proposing the best options considering the local experience and reality, in light of the best international practices.
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