to register unemployed or not ?

[janda]

currently reviewing all employment opportunites including casual work with Adecco, waiting for ANPE.....yawn, or eventually starting up in business as self-employed painter-decorator or some type of catering business and keep hearing conflicting info on Asseddic. Is it better to register unemployed with them and for what future benefits if going down the self employed route? Have heard that they do contact people for work opportunties.

cheers

Janda

[Ty Korrigan]

Hello, too hot to point up my walls so I am hiding from the sun....

When I first came here my french girlfriends mother made me sign on as unemployed as there are many benefits to doing so. Reductions for cinemas, concerts and the like...

When I started up my entreprise I was able to claim a partial exhonouration from my social charges some 65% during the second year of trading. It 'was' the first year but the M.S.A change their minds like girls in an underwear department...

There is also finance/loans/grants available to help kick start your business and importantly you can also claim the R.M.I which for a single person is 430euros per month if you are on a low income as a self employed person. Although sometimes claiming this can be a miserable and humiliating experience it is something you are entitled to so if you don't ask you don't get.

Had I not had a native family behind me I am sure that I would never have claimed anything.

However... I have since found out another way out of social charges....

 If I return to my former lifestyle living in a touring caravan or tent/yurt then camp on land belonging to a friend I may register as a 'Gent de voyage' and pay around 300euros for the year in social charges but in return I have no social rights such as medical care.

 Not that I would do that unless my girlfriend and I split but the option is there...