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If you have been absent from the labour market without an acceptable reason for more than six months, you will not be granted earnings-related daily allowance before you have fulfilled the condition regarding employment again after the absence.

You shall be considered to have been on the labour market, if you have been in employment included in the condition regarding employment, have been employed in entrepreneurial activities or own work, or have participated in service that promotes employment, or have been an unemployed job-seeker in the TE Office.

You shall be considered to have had an acceptable reason for absence from the labour market due to illness, institutional care, rehabilitation, military service, civil service, full-time studying, scholarship period, birth of a child, care of a child at most three years old, or a comparable reason.

If you live in Finland but work on a commercial vessel used for foreign traffic within the meaning of the Seafarers’ Employment Contracts Act, it is a prerequisite for receiving earnings-related daily allowance that you have taken out additional insurance arranged by the unemployment fund. Since 1 January 2020, the General Unemployment Fund (YTK) has no longer arranged any additional insurance in the maritime sector. Additional maritime insurance previously taken out from YTK is still valid if the membership fee has been paid according to the bylaws.

Adjusted daily allowance will be paid in the following situations:

1. You have income from part-time work. So the working hours agreed in your employment contract are at most 80 per cent of the maximum working hours in the field. In order to receive adjusted daily allowance it is required that you have started the part-time work while unemployed or have started the part-time work alongside full-time work or your employer has unilaterally changed the work to part-time work, complying with the period of notice. So working in part-time employment cannot be due to your own choice.
2. Your daily working hours have been shortened due to lay-off.
3. You have received a full-time job that lasts at most two weeks.
4. Your working has been prevented due to such a strike or lockout that has no effect on your terms of employment or working conditions.
5. You have income from part-time entrepreneurial activities or own work.

The income you earn reduces the earnings-related daily allowance which you would be entitled to receive if you were completely unemployed. The reduction shall be made on the daily allowance for the application period during which the income is paid.

Advance payment means that in certain situations, we can pay you a daily allowance without a decision. The decision will be made at a later date.

Advance payment does not mean that we would pay earnings-related daily allowance in advance.

The period for which daily allowance is applied. As a general rule, the application period is four weeks, a month or a calendar month.

A calendar week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. Calendar week is not the same as a week which may also start and end on other days.

Fulfilling of the membership condition and condition regarding employment are requirements for receiving earnings-related daily allowance. To fulfil the condition regarding employment, you are required to have been a member for 26 calendar weeks during which you have worked at least 18 hours per week and your salary is at least in accordance with the collective agreement. This work period may consist of one or more employments. The work does not have to be continuous. Work for the working condition can be accumulated over a period of 28 months. Employment can only be counted once towards the working condition.

If you work as a family member of an entrepreneur without a share of ownership, to fulfil the condition regarding employment, you are required to have been a member for 52 calendar weeks during which you have worked at least 18 hours per week and your salary is at least in accordance with the collective agreement. These weeks cannot be combined with other employment. Employment can only be counted once towards the working condition.

In employment with pay subsidy, 75 per cent of the calendar weeks in which you have been working are included in the condition regarding employment. If employment with pay subsidy has been arranged on the basis of the employment obligation in accordance with the Act on Public Employment and Business Service, all calendar weeks that fulfil the condition regarding employment shall be included in the condition regarding employment. Employment can only be counted once towards the working condition.

In order to receive earnings-related daily allowance It is required that the conditions regarding membership and employment are met. The condition regarding membership is met when you have been a member of the unemployment fund for at least 26 weeks.

Unemployment allowance paid by the unemployment fund which is based on salary income preceding the unemployment.

The EU countries are The Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Poland, France, Romania, Sweden, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia.

The EEA countries are Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The EEA countries apply EU legislation.

Switzerland also applies the same regulations related to unemployment security as the EU and EEA countries, although it is not an EU or EEA country.

The UK left the EU on 1 February 2020. Until the end of 2020, the legislation in force at the time of withdrawal will apply.

Those considered family members are the spouse of the person working in the company and a person who is in direct line of ascent or descent of the person working in the company and lives in the same household with the person.

Spouses are considered to be two persons who are married to each other and two persons who live in continuous co-habitation, or a shared household, and otherwise in marriage-like conditions. If persons married to each other live continuously separated, and they do not have a shared household due to a broken relationship, they shall not be considered spouses in terms of unemployment security.

In full-time work, the working hours are more than 80 per cent of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee applied within the industry. Daily allowance is not payable during full-time work that lasts more than 2 weeks. Daily allowance will be paid up to the beginning of employment and after it has ended. If full-time work lasts for a maximum of 2 weeks, the applicant may be entitled to adjusted daily allowance.

The TE Office examines the labour policy preconditions of a job-seeker for unemployment allowance and submits a statement on the case to the unemployment fund. The TE Office examines e.g. matters related to studying and entrepreneurship. A statement without obstacles is a requirement for the payment of daily allowance. The statement cannot be made valid retroactively, so it is always important to register as a job-seeker at the TE Office on the first day of unemployment at the latest. Registering is done primarily electronically on the Oma asiointipage of TE Services.

The concept of a light entrepreneur has gradually become established to mean a person who employs himself/herself with his/her own work and takes care of invoicing and other statutory duties through a specialized service company. The Unemployment Security Act does not recognize light entrepreneurs. As the light entrepreneur does not normally have an employer, he/she is usually treated as an entrepreneur in questions regarding unemployment security.

When a light entrepreneur is an entrepreneur, he/she cannot join the YTK, which is an unemployment fund for wage earners. As the light entrepreneurship is a part-time business, this does not prevent maintaining the membership. A wage earner’s working condition cannot be accumulated as a light entrepreneur.

We have provided instructions for those working through the invoicing service in our net services.

The calendar weeks in which the person has been in employment that fulfils the requirements are included in the employee’s condition regarding employment. The requirements concerning the working time are met when the person’s working hours in one or more jobs total at least 18 hours during a calendar week. There are exceptions to this weekly requirement for working hours in lines of work with unusual working hour arrangements. They may include e.g. teachers, home help workers, athletes, and different artists.

For applicants of earnings-related daily allowance whose maximum payment period starts on 1 January 2017 or later, the maximum payment period is 400 days in normal conditions, but it can also be 300 or 500 days.

In a normal situation, earnings-related daily allowance is paid for a maximum of 400 days per person, who has fulfilled the working condition. The maximum payment period is 400 days when the daily allowance applicant has accumulated more than 3 years of employment history before the start of the daily allowance period. Work history can only be taken into account at the age of 17 or carried out later.

The maximum payment period is 300 days, if the applicant’s work history before the beginning of the daily allowance period is exactly 3 years or less.

The maximum payment period is 500 days, if the applicant has fulfilled the condition regarding employment after turning 58, and while fulfilling the condition regarding employment has a work history of 5 years during the last 20 years.

If the maximum payment period has started before 1 January 2017, earnings-related daily allowance will be paid for 500 days. If the condition regarding employment is fulfilled, the maximum payment period will be determined in accordance with the new regulations,

In part-time work, the working hours are at most 80 per cent of the maximum working hours of a full-time employee applied in the industry. It is required for the payment of adjusted daily allowance that part-time work has been agreed on in the employment contract. The employee may be entitled to adjusted daily allowance for the period of part-time work, if the working hours are at most 80 per cent of the maximum working hours applied in the industry. Work shall then also be considered to be part-time, even if the working hours sometimes exceeded that. For such a period, the applying for adjusted daily allowance shall be continued according to the normal application schedule, but if the working hours exceed the 80 per cent limit during the application period, daily allowance shall not be paid for that period.

As a general rule, the 26-week condition regarding employment shall be fulfilled within the 28-month review period. So the employment need not be uninterrupted, but it can accumulate from separate employment periods during the review period. A review period can be extended by a maximum of 7 years, in which case the condition regarding employment can be accumulated for more than 9 years. Grounds for extending the review period include, for example, the applicant’s absence from the labour market due to illness, institutional care, rehabilitation, military service, non-military service, full-time studying, employment promotion measures, birth of child, or care of child under 3 years old. If you have nevertheless worked during such a period that would otherwise be a period that extends the review period (e.g. during child care leave), such time shall then not extend the review period.

The amount of earnings-related daily allowance is calculated according to the salary income preceding the unemployment. Salaries for the period when the condition regarding employment has been fulfilled shall be taken into account in calculating the salary income. The salary used as the basis of daily allowance does not exactly correspond to the salary preceding the unemployment, because the statutory TEL deduction will be deducted from the salary which is 4,40 % in 2023. Furthermore, holiday compensation or holiday bonus shall not be included in the salary.

A person shall be considered to be in a senior position in a company, if he/she is the Managing Director or a member of the Board of Directors of a limited liability company, or in a similar position in a limited liability company, other company or corporation. A deputy member of the Board of Directors shall be considered to be in a senior position is he/she participates in meetings of the Board of Directors.

According to Chapter 6, Section 4 of the Unemployment Security Act, when calculating the salary on which the daily allowance is based, the daily allowance contribution for health insurance referred to in Chapter 18, Section 21(1) of the Health Insurance Act is deducted from the salary or the earned income of the annual income, the total amount of the employee's unemployment insurance contribution referred to in Section 153 of the employees' Pensions Act and of the Unemployment Benefits Act, which has been reduced by 4,40 %. 

Strike benefit is compensation paid by trade unions. You cannot apply for it from an unemploiment fund.

Persons who actually receive unemployment benefit and persons to whom unemployment benefit is not paid for the following reasons are considered persons entitled to unemployment benefit:

1. fixed period without benefit
2. restriction related to vocational education concerning those under 25
3.   condition regarding employment
4.    waiting period of earnings-related daily allowance

Earnings-related daily allowance is calculated based on your earlier income. There is a threshold in the level of the daily allowance after which the amount of daily allowance will increase more slowly. The threshold has been determined so that it is 95 times the basic part. The earnings-related part is 20 % for daily wages above this limit, compared to 45 % before that.

Common name for labour market subsidy and basic unemployment allowance paid by Kela and earnings-related daily allowance paid by the unemployment fund.

Unemployment compensation is a commonly used concept that refers to unemployment benefit. 

In an unemployment fund you can insure yourself in case of unemployment. 
An unemployment fund pays its members earnings-related daily allowance and alternation compensation. All unemployment funds pay the same amount of daily allowance in accordance with the terms of the Unemployment Security Act. An unemployment fund is not a trade union. YTK is Finland’s biggest unemployment fund which can be joined by any employee.

Before the payment of daily allowance can be started, a waiting period of 5 days is set for you. You are not entitled to unemployment allowance for the waiting period. The waiting period should be fulfilled during 8 consecutive calendar weeks. As a general rule, a waiting period will always be set when you fulfil again the 26-week condition regarding employment, and the maximum payment period of your daily allowance starts from the beginning. A waiting period shall not be set, however, if you have last time fulfilled the condition regarding employment within a year and the waiting period has been set then.

If your waiting period starts before 1.1.2018, the waiting period is 7 days.