How do social benefits affect the earnings-related daily allowance?
Any social security benefits you receive may affect your earnings-related daily allowance in three different ways. A social security benefit can stop the payment of a daily allowance, or it may mean that you get less daily allowance. Some social security benefits have no effect on earnings-related daily allowance.
The following social security benefits mean that you will get no earnings-related daily allowance:
- maternity, paternity or parental allowance
- special care allowance and special maternity allowance
- support for education and training
- unemployment pension
- full disability pension granted in Finland
- years-of-service pension
- full old-age pension
- early old-age pension
- individual early old-age pension
- guarantee pension as supplement to pension
- pension assistance
- daily allowance under the Health Insurance Act
daily allowance and employment accident pension under the Workers’ Compensation Act granted for full incapacity for work
- compensation for loss of earnings under the Motor Liability Insurance Act granted for full incapacity for work
- rehabilitation allowance and equivalent compensation for loss of earnings
- farmers’ early retirement aid
- change-of generation pension
The following social security benefits mean that you will get less earnings-related daily allowance:
- child home care allowance
- flexible care allowance
- study grant (As a rule, a study grant and unemployment allowance will not be paid for the same period. Read more about combining studies and unemployment.)
- partial home care allowance
- partial disability pension
- disability benefit from another country
- part-time pension
- old-age pension (not full)
- old-age pension not granted based on full years of service
- supplementary pension provided by the employer
- farm closure pension
- farm closure compensation
- compensation for loss of earnings and disability pension under the Motor Liability Insurance Act that was not granted based on full incapacity for work
- daily allowance under the Military Injuries Act that was not granted based on full incapacity for work
- compensation paid under the Military Accidents Act
- an amount equivalent to the supplemental interest on a life annuity under the Workers’ Compensation Act that was not granted based on full incapacity for work
- daily allowance and employment accident pension under the Workers’ Compensation Act that were not granted for full incapacity for work
- compensation for loss of earnings under the Act on Compensation for Criminal Damage
- compensation for loss of earnings under the Patient Injury Act
- guarantee pension if it was granted in addition to one of the above-mentioned benefits
child Home care allowance
We will deduct the child home care allowance from your daily allowance if the home care allowance is paid to you or your spouse. We will not deduct the support paid to your spouse from your daily allowance if:
- your spouse is also unemployed
- in addition to child home care allowance, your spouse receives maternity, paternity or parental allowance
- your spouse takes care of the child him/herself and is therefore not entitled to unemployment benefit
We expect that your spouse is actually at home looking after the child. If your child is regularly in child-care outside the home even part-time, we must deduct the child home care allowance from your earnings-related daily allowance.
If your spouse is studying or working part-time either as an entrepreneur or for someone else, we will also deduct the child home care allowance paid to your spouse from your earnings-related daily allowance.
The following social security benefits do not affect the amount of your daily allowance:
- survivors’ pensions
- care allowance for disabled persons under the Disability Benefits Act
- compensation for functional limitation under the Workers’ Compensation Act or the Agricultural Workers’ Compensation Act
- life annuity and supplementary annuity under the Military Injuries Act
- disability allowance under the Disability Benefits Act
- housing allowance under the Act on Housing Allowance for Pensioners
- housing allowance under the General Housing Allowance Act
- child benefit under the Child Benefit Act
- social assistance under the Act on Social Assistance
- military allowance under the Military Allowance Act
- reimbursements under the Workers’ Compensation Act, the Agricultural Workers’ Compensation Act or the Military Injuries Act
- partial early old-age pension under earnings-related pension acts
- unemployment benefit paid in the form of a mobility allowance
- similar protected income payable on the basis of the laws of another country
- epidemic compensation
Impact of social assistance on the daily allowance
According to the Unemployment Security Act, social assistance is not deducted from the daily allowance.
However, in accordance with the Act on Social Assistance, Kela may ask you to pay back your earnings-related allowance for the period for which Kela has paid you social assistance while you wait for your earnings-related daily allowance.
This means that, even if the social assistance is not deducted from the daily allowance, any social assistance paid in advance while you wait for the daily allowance, may be deducted from your daily allowance.