Hi all,
My wife and I (neither Japanese, her Japanese level is N4 and mine between N34-N3) live in hyogo and had a baby recently. Due to personal circumstances, my wife was not able to get maternity leave/pay. (Edit: she quit of her own accord, wasn’t fired for being pregnant although her headhunter company did make her agree and sign a form agreeing she wouldn’t get pregnant while in Japan )
Her company let us know about hello work and gave us the documents with the last 6 months pay, etc, but we don’t know much more about it.
———
The below is in regards to unemployment insurance for mothers taking care of/raising a baby, if anyone has similar experience?
We went to HW and they said there is unemployment insurance when “働けます！と考える or something like “I have the ability to work” then you can apply.
Originally the guy at HW told us we would get money from my wife’s last day at work up to the birth but when we went back recently the new lady said he was wrong. 😞
She says we can use HW for up to three years but have to go twice a month to apply for jobs or something. I don’t really understand if we can actually use the HW to get some unemployment ¥¥ for the next 3 years or what happens if we find a job for my wife. She is taking care of the baby so while she can “physically” work she wants to not work until the baby is older. They said it’s OK to 子供育て but I don’t see how if they have us actively applying for jobs? Kind of defeats the purpose?
Where we live, they don’t have English translation and only a phone operator from 9am-11am or so. It’s difficult to get there so early in the morning with the newborn, and I’m having a hard time understanding them in Japanese.
They act like it’s guaranteed we can get the ¥¥ for at least a year, then extend for up to 2 more years and I guess they assume no one will hire my wife in that time??
We explained that we need my wife to raise the baby but we also need the financial support from HW, as losing her income source has hurt us financially.
Has anyone had experience with this?
2 comments
Hang on, I just skimmed this (so not read the whole post yet) because the first few paragraphs are literally suggesting that your wife got fired for being pregnant?
If so that’s VERY illegal.
Unless she voluntarily quit on her own accord?
Basically, maternity leave and child care leave is paid by HW in the presumption that you’re employed, remain employed during the duration, and will return to work when the maternity leave/childcare leave ends.
If your wife is no longer employed she’s not entitled to the leave pay from HW and instead is entitled to unemployment insurance from HW.
So it’s important to clarify and establish if she is still employed, and if not…. Why not?
Part of the function of HelloWork is to get you re-employed. A condition of getting unemployment pay is that you have to actively job search, and if it’s anything like the US unemployment office, you MUST accept a job if offered it after applying.