ukk-kategoria: Unemployment allowance

You will not be entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance for the period for which we periodise the sales profit on the sale of your business assets related to the closure of your business.

Sales profit may arise for example, from the sale of shares, a partnership interest, a business or corporate assets. Sales profits may also arise from unsold business assets or those taken into your own use

The periodisation of sales profit is accounted for and any capital gain is amortised when you cease trading. The periodisation of sales profit is based on the income used as the basis for your earnings-related daily allowance. The periodisation of sales profit postpones the start of the maximum period of earnings-related daily allowance by the length of the period to which the periodisation of sales profit corresponds. The periodisation of sales profit from the sale of your business assets will be spread over a period of up to 24 months.

However, the periodisation of sales profit is not applied if your business has been in operation for less than 18 months, or if the balance sheet total of your business for the last financial year, after the deduction of business liabilities, does not exceed €20 000.

If you have not been obliged to draw up a balance sheet, please send us an inventory of assets.

Social benefits can have an impact on the earnings-related daily allowance. Some benefits prevent you from receiving the earnings-related allowance, some fully reduce the amount of the allowance and some have no effect on the benefits paid by the cashier.

Benefits that have no impact

These benefits do not usually reduce or prevent the payment of the daily allowance

• Voluntary pension insurance taken out by the person himself or herself, or by his or her company
• Housing allowance or pensioner’s housing allowance
• Child benefit
• Municipal allowance for home care support for children
• Partial care allowance (partial care leave)
• Flexible care allowance for a spouse
• Partial old-age pension
• Social assistance (unemployment allowance may, however, affect social assistance)
• Informal Care allowance
• Care allowance for a pensioner
• Compensation for functional limitation Workers Compensation Act
• Conscripts allowance and housing assistance under conscripts allowance
• Disability allowance (disability allowance under the Disability Benefits Act)
• Annuity and supplementary interest under the Military Injuries Act
• Compensation for special costs pursuant to the Employment Accident Insurance Act and the Military Injuries Act
• Compensation paid under a non-statutory insurance scheme, such as personal accident insurance or medical expenses insurance
• Privileged income paid pursuant to the legislation of another country
• Family pensions, including care and supplementary care pensions

Benefits that reduce the daily allowance

• Guaranteed pension, if it is granted in addition to one of the above benefits
• Childcare allowance (care allowance and care supplement)
• Flexible care allowance (spouse’s benefit is not affected)
• Partial disability pension and partial rehabilitation allowance under the Earnings-related Pension Acts
• Part-time pension under the Earnings-related Pension Acts
• Closure pension
• National pension paid pursuant to section 12(4) of the National Pension Act because of blindness, immobility or incapacity
• Daily allowance paid pursuant to the Military Injuries Act and not granted on the basis of full disability
• Compensation for loss of earnings under the Motor Insurance Act
• Workers’ compensation pension not granted on the basis of full disability
• Voluntary pension or supplementary pension provided by your employer
• Pension or other benefit from another country for total or partial invalidity
• Loss of income compensation pursuant to the Act on Compensation for Criminal Damages
• Loss of earnings compensation (pension) pursuant to the Patient Injuries Act
• Student allowance (if Kela has not recovered the benefit) and housing allowance
• Old-age pension not awarded on the basis of full years of service
• Daily allowance and workers’ compensation pension (supplementary annuity) paid pursuant to the Employment Accidents Insurance Act and not granted on the basis of full disability

Benefits that prevent the payment of the daily allowance

• Sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance granted under the Sickness Insurance Act
• Compensation for loss of earnings during rehabilitation measures
• Compensation for loss of earnings under the Employment Accidents Insurance Act  or the Military Injuries Act
• Old-age pension and early retirement pension
• Retirement pension based on full years of service
• Individual early retirement pension
• Disability pension or other benefit based on full disability
• Rehabilitation subsidy
• Unemployment pension
• Guarantee pension granted to supplement an old-age pension or early retirement pension
• An old-age pension granted in an EU/EEA country, comparable to a pension granted in Finland
• Maternity, special maternity, paternity or parental allowance (including child care leave)
• Special care allowance
• Adult education support
• A period of notice for which in accordance with the law or collective agreement salary should be paid

If a member receives a national pension under Article 22(2) of the National Pensions Act, or any other statutory benefit not mentioned above, his or her daily allowance is reduced by the amount of the benefit.

We pay an earnings-related daily allowance to members of the Entrepreneur Fund who are unemployed.

According to the Unemployment Security Act, an entrepreneur is unemployed if he or she closes down their business or when he or she is no longer employed in the business as outlined by the Unemployment Security Act.

In unemployment security, the concept of closing down a business depends on the type of company and your overall situation. A member of the fund may become entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance after 15 months of membership and entrepreneurship.

Graduated reduction of daily allowance

Due to an amendment in legislation that came to effect on 2.9.2024 unemployment benefits will be reduced in tow steps:

• to 80% of the initial level after 40 days of unemployment benefit, and then
• to 75% of the initial level after 170 days of unemployment benefit.

The earnings-related unemployment allowance is paid for a maximum of five days per week, so 40 days of benefit means about two months and 170 days of benefit means about eight months.

The minimum rule
The earnings-related daily allowance has a minimum amount. The rule on the minimum amount means that the earnings-related daily allowance is always paid at least at the level of the basic daily allowance. The basic daily allowance is not graduated.

If the amount of the daily allowance before the differentiation is equal to the basic daily allowance, the differentiation does not affect the daily allowance.

The earnings-related daily allowance is also staggered during part-time work. However, the 40-day and 170-day time limits are met more slowly during part-time work.

Example:
Your full daily allowance is €70 per day. You work part-time and receive a daily allowance of €35 per day for the time you work. It takes 80 days to meet the 40-day time limit for staggering.

Where a deduction is made from the daily allowance on the basis of the earnings from part-time work and staggering of allowances at the same time, the deduction to the staggering is made before the deduction on earnings from work. You can estimate the amount of your daily allowance after deductions from the staggering of your allowance and your salary using this daily allowance calculator on the website of the federation on unemployment funds in Finland.

Example:
Your full daily allowance is €70 per day. You have been receiving your daily allowance for so long that the level is reduced due to staggering. You have been receiving a daily subsistence allowance of € 56 per day for a period of 70 days. You receive an income of €430 per month. The daily reduction in earned income is €10. The level of the daily allowance will be €46.

Your earnings-related daily allowance will be staggered, i.e. it will be reduced in two steps if you have ceased your business activity and your unemployment started on or after 2 September 2024.

If you receive daily allowance on the grounds that you are a part-time entrepreneur or have ceased to work in a business, your daily allowance will start to be staggered after 40 paid days following the cessation of your business activity, if your business activity subsequently ceases.

If you have been an employee and your unemployment started on or after 2 September 2024, the staggering will apply to you if you have been receiving wages that qualify you for the work requirement in or after September 2024.

The earnings-related daily allowance is graduated. This means that the level of the daily allowance decreases in two stages after allowance has been paid for a certain period of time.

Daily allowance decreases:

• 80% of the initial level after 40 days of daily allowance (approx. two months) and
• 75% of the initial level after 170 days of daily allowance (approx. 8 months).