Do I get unemployment benefit in Switzerland if I resigned myself?

Suspension days by reason for unemployment

Under AVIV art. 45. Suspension days are days without an allowance, not a loss of entitlement. Your RAV grades the severity case by case — the ranges are the statutory ones. As of 7 September 2026.

What "self-inflicted" means in an individual case

The suspension attaches to fault, not to the form the ending took. Resigning is the clearest case but not the only one: a dismissal you provoked through your own conduct can also count as self-inflicted, and so can a termination agreement you signed.

Conversely, not every resignation weighs the same. The fund assesses whether it would have been reasonable to expect you to keep the job. Health reasons, a documented conflict, untenable working conditions, or an employer breaching contractual obligations all feed into that assessment — provided you can substantiate them.

A common and expensive case is resigning in reliance on a new job that then falls through or ends during the probation period. If you resign because of an offer, get it in writing before you resign — verbal promises later help neither with the new employer nor with the fund.

In every variant, documentation decides it. What you can substantiate at the registration interview — medical certificates, correspondence, the written contract that was not honoured — is taken into account. What you merely recount usually is not.

The conditions that apply regardless of fault

Before fault even becomes relevant, the entitlement has to exist. The central hurdle is the contribution period: you must show at least twelve months of contributory employment within the two years before you register.

In practice that catches more people than expected. Anyone returning after a long spell abroad, after studying, or after a period of family care often does not meet it straightforwardly. A chain of short assignments can also fall just short. Check this before basing a decision on the entitlement.

Then come the ongoing conditions: you must live in Switzerland, be fit for placement — that is, willing and able to take a suitable job — register with the RAV, and comply with the monitoring rules. Fitness for placement is where, for instance, simultaneously starting self-employment or full-time study becomes a problem.

And the duty to search applies before unemployment starts. If you resign, that duty runs from the day you give notice — otherwise two grounds for sanction stack up: the self-inflicted unemployment and the insufficient job-search efforts before registration.

How much you receive

The daily allowance is 70 percent of insured earnings. It rises to 80 percent where, among other things, you have dependent children under 25, where insured earnings are low — the threshold is CHF 3797 per month — or where there is a disability of at least 40 percent.

Insured earnings are based on your previous salary, capped by the maximum under accident insurance. Anyone who earned well above that cap therefore receives noticeably less than 70 percent of their actual previous income — a point routinely underestimated when planning.

The maximum duration is two years within the benefit period. How many daily allowances you are entitled to inside that window depends on contribution period, age and maintenance obligations; the fund calculates it when you register.

Suspension days reduce the payout but do not extend the benefit period. They are therefore a genuine loss rather than a deferral — which makes the difference between 1 and 60 days very concrete.

Waiting periods come on top

Alongside suspension days there are waiting periods, and the two are often confused. The general waiting period is normally five days of controlled unemployment and applies regardless of any fault.

On top of that come special waiting periods, which depend on insured earnings and maintenance obligations. They range from zero to twenty days: those who earned well and have no dependants wait longest, those who earned little or have children wait not at all or only briefly.

In the unfavourable case, then, three things add up: the general waiting period, a special waiting period, and the suspension days for resigning. That cumulative effect is why several weeks can pass between registering and the first payment.

So plan financially with a buffer rather than from the date of registration. If you are resigning, put that buffer in place before you do — it is the real price of the decision.

What to do before you resign

Get the new job offer in writing before you resign from the old one. That single measure eliminates the most common and most expensive failure case entirely.

If you are resigning without another role lined up, check your contribution period first and have the RAV or the fund walk you through the process. Advice before resigning costs nothing and sometimes changes the decision — for instance when it turns out that waiting two more months secures the contribution period.

Gather the evidence for your reasons while you can still get it. Medical certificates, emails, minutes, the employment contract and any warnings are harder to obtain later once contact with the company has broken off.

And start applying from the day notice is given, not from your last working day. Those efforts are compulsory, they are checked, and after a resignation they are the simplest way to avoid at least the second ground for sanction.