Social insurance Significant disruptions in the payment of unemployment benefits resolved
The considerable disruptions in the payment of unemployment benefits that have occurred since the introduction of the new payment system on January 6 have been resolved. System speed and user-friendliness are being continuously improved, the federal government announced on Friday.
30.01.2026, 12:46
30.01.2026, 16:04
SDA
Payments are continuing and outstanding cases are being processed step by step, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) added. The State Secretariat assumes that payments will "generally be made on time or with a few days' delay". However, complex cases could take up to a few days longer. This is due to the slower processing of dossiers.
A reliable figure on how many people could be affected by a possible later payment cannot yet be estimated at this time, Keystone-SDA was asked. By last Thursday, a cumulative total of 362.7 million Swiss francs had been paid out. This corresponds to around 91 percent of the target value.
According to Seco, this largely corresponds to the amount expected to be paid out up to this point and includes, in particular, payments to previous benefit recipients.
Backlog for the newly unemployed
There are currently backlogs in the payment of unemployment benefits to newly registered unemployed persons, as considerable resources have been used to ensure ongoing payments. This could extend the waiting time until the first payment for newly unemployed persons. The backlogs are now being reduced as a matter of priority.
Those responsible at Seco are "very aware that delays in payments can lead to financial bottlenecks for individual people", the statement continued. Those affected can ensure that all the necessary documents have been submitted in full - either electronically via Jobroom or by post. Electronic submission via Jobroom also makes processing much easier and faster.
Entitlement to unemployment benefits is guaranteed by law and can be claimed up to three months after the end of a control period.
The problems with the payment of unemployment benefits are also the subject of parliamentary oversight. The Control Committee of the Council of States (GPK-S) instructed the responsible sub-committee to investigate, as it announced on Friday. It had dealt with the state of affairs several times in recent years. This earlier work will be continued.
System introduction causes problems
The payment of daily allowances should be up and running again by the end of January, it was initially announced last Wednesday. It had previously become known that thousands of unemployed people had not received their money since mid-December due to technical problems with the Asal 2.0 payment system.
The introduction of the IT system had caused technical problems. The majority of the approximately 145,000 currently unemployed people in Switzerland are affected, reported the "Tamedia" newspapers.
