Deregistration of jobseekers with health issues breach of legal certainty, says ombudsman

Deregistering people with health problems from the database of jobseekers is a violation of the principle of legal certainty because they lose their entitlement to unemployment benefits, according to a report by the ombudsman for fundamental rights released on Thursday.

László Székely’s finding came in connection with a case concerning a complainant who had been deregistered as a jobseeker and subsequently stopped receiving jobseeker’s allowance. The complainant said they had been deregistered on the ground that they had been ruled physically unfit to perform public work under the government’s fostered work scheme on the basis of a pre-employment physical exam.

In a separate complaint, an MP pointed out that unemployment benefits for jobseekers ruled physically unfit for work are withdrawn by authorities.

The ombudsman’s report said that under the relevant law, jobseekers are only allowed to be deregistered if a change in their circumstances indicates that they can no longer be considered active jobseekers.

The report said that a year before being registered as a jobseeker, a competent authority had found that the complainant’s health was below the threshold for employment.

In spite of this, the complainant was registered as a jobseeker and deemed eligible for jobseeker’s allowance. They were later subjected to the pre-employment exam, after which they were again ruled unfit for work. At this point, they were deregistered.

The ombudsman said the practice of deregistering jobseekers over the state of their health without notifying them in advance went against the standards of the rule of law.

Székely said he had turned to the human resources and economy ministers over the matter.

Photo: MTI (illustration)

Source: MTI