I was unemployed for the month of August in Kanton Zurich and received RAV. I made around 16 job applications and in my line of work, Aerospace Engineering, there aren't too many jobs about.
My RAV Contact also thought I should applying using a fancy portfolio or something.
I have been contracting now in Aerospace since 1997 and all my jobs have come via Telephone, word of mouth or Email, and she did not understand this, but clearly I have been unemployed for 6 months in the last 18 years...most of that time, voluntarily.
Half way through August I got word I should start something, in Zurich, in September and got confirmation a week later. Therefore I stopped applying for jobs.
I told the agent at RAV this, saying, I didn't want to waste other potential companies time and also kill a chance for someone else knowing I had a job in the bag already.
A week or so ago I got a letter from the Kasse stating I should pay back 10 days worth of RAV payments because of lack of Applications. :-(
Have any of you had any experience with this and, or is there any defence against it?
I have been communicating with the Kasse as to the reasons why etc....
Thanks in advance for any information that may appease this situation.
Last time I dealt with them is a few years back, but this being Switzerland do the principles hardly change. I found a new job after being about two weeks with the RAV. Naturally wanted the new employer to hire me to the beginning of the next month. That's how payrolls work... but not the RAV. I had to confirm to them that I offered to start working earlier and that the company "for administrative reasons" would only hire me in two weeks time... and yes, they made me write applications for this two weeks although I already had accepted an offer and there was no way I could possibly be employed earlier.
Thing is, I was completely honest about the whole thing and the RAV agent seemed happy for me, congratulated me then wished me all the best...in German of course.
Then I got a sharp tickle in my back a month later, that seems very typical here...bunch of smiling assassins.
Not just the RAV, when I was unemployed in the UK in '07 (before the current insanity) I had to prove I was job searching up to the day before I started work. The rational is that you are being paid to search for a job, not for being unemployed. Mostly they are set up so that you can work anyday, hence the no holidays and having childcare rules. They can not distinguish between a casual labourer who can be called on site in an hour and rocket scientists or academics who are likely to be given weeks or even months (in my case) of notice before the job starts. Tough, I know, but their rational is that you could work as a temp during that time, unless you don't want to look for work, so why should they pay you to look for work.
You were told to apply for jobs for the whole month, it is pretty much the single KPI that they use to decide to give you your money during those 18 months. The moment you stopped applying was the moment that in their eyes you stopped earning RAV.
It may not be logical, but those were the rules, and all you had to do was follow them for 10 more days.
You're right. But I pay the poor girl/guy who works at the RAV who have to put up with those people and have to manage tedious paperwork just because of adults who behave like schoolchildren playing truant - and then complain....
Behave like school children? (2 words by the way) Besides grammar, you're reading comprehension has a lot left to be desired also....somewhat that of a child who goes to primary school.
So I suggest you read the post, absorb it and try to understand what is being written.
Where in that post did I write I was trying to lie or cheat the RAV?
So you would agree that to keep applying for jobs, wasting other companies time and potentially halting someone else from getting that position?
OP:So if it's the job you really want, spend the rest of the 10 days applying for jobs you have no chance of getting like brain surgeon, chief physicist at CERN, commander in chief of the Swiss Army etc etc. Well done and good luck in your new job.
It's only his taxes. Our taxes go on other stuff like infrastructure, education etc.
I think you should contest it. I've been there. But maybe Bern is different.
In April I lost my job when my employer went bankrupt. I found a job again quite quickly, and started working in July.
At the beginning of each month the RAV send me a form to fill out, to document my job searching efforts.
In my April and May forms I filled out all the applications I had made, and ticked the box that I was still unemployed.
On the June form I just ticked the box that I had accepted new employment and mentioned the start date. I also contacted my case worker and told him I had accepted work.
As I understand it, the moment you accept work you are absolved of applying for jobs, as long as the starting date is within a month. In my case I got all my payments without issue. I took advantage of not having to apply for jobs in May to go and travel a bit.
Ah, Richdog, how cute -- a drive-by groan for my post about grammarians living in glass houses. Truly the mark of the ignorant: you don't understand basic grammar, so you hit the groan button. Even Divesnowboy took the criticism in good grace.
Maybe you should leave grown-up writing to the grown-ups, hmmm?