Amount and payment of daily allowance
The earnings-related daily allowance is a way to secure your livelihood when unemployed.
Amount of the daily allowance
Your daily allowance consists of:
- a basic component of €37.21 in 2026 and
- the earnings-related component, which is 45% of the difference between the daily wage* and the basic component. For monthly incomes above €3534.95, the earnings-related component is 20% for the excess.
We calculate your earnings-related component based on your insurance level in the 15 months before you became unemployed. The level of insurance you choose for the fund can at most be equal to the same amount as your annual income from your pension insurance. If your insurance level has fluctuated, the level of insurance you have had for longer will have a greater impact on the amount of your daily allowance.
*The daily wage is obtained by dividing the insurance level on which your daily allowance is based by 12 and then by 21.5.
Duration and determination of your daily allowance
As a rule, we pay an earnings-related allowance for five working days a week for up to 400 days. If you have been working for less than 3 years, we will pay daily allowance for up to 300 days. If you have fulfilled the work requirement after the age of 58 and have worked for at least five years in the previous 20 years, we can pay 500 days of daily earnings allowance.
If your unemployment is prolonged, your daily allowance will be staggered i.e. lowered in two stages:
- first to 80% of the initial level, after 40 days of benefit payments (~2 months) and then
- then to 75% of the initial level, after 170 days of benefit payments (~8 months).
Waiting period
We start paying daily allowance after a waiting period that corresponds to seven full working days. Please also fill in the application for daily allowance for the waiting period.
Impact of your insurance level on the daily allowance
- We calculate the amount of your daily allowance based on your insurance level during the last 15 months before you became unemployed. If your insurance level has varied, the level that has been effective the longest will have the largest impact on the amount of your daily allowance.
- If you have mistakenly chosen a higher level of insurance than the annual income of your pension insurance, your daily allowance will be based on the annual income of your pension insurance. The annual income used as the basis for your daily allowance must be at least €15 481 (in 2026) and must not exceed the annual income of your pension insurance.
- There is a 20% rule when increasung the insurance level you have chosen for the fund. According to this rule, you may increase your insurance level by no more than 20% within 15 months so that the increase immediately starts to affect the basis of your earnings-related daily allowance.
If you raise your insurance level by more than 20%, we cannot take into account the portion exceeding 20% when calculating your daily allowance until you have maintained the new insurance level for at least 15 months.
Therefore, if you increase your insurance level by more than 20%, you must maintain the higher level for at least 15 months for the portion exceeding 20% to be included in the basis of your earnings-related daily allowance.
Previous lower limits for accruing the work requirement
The lower limit for unemployment security has been:
€15 128 in 2025
€14 803 in 2024
€14 088 in 2023
€13 573 in 2022
€13 247 in 2021
€13 076 in 2020
€12 816 in 2019
€12 576 in 2018
€12 564 in 2017
€12 420 in 2016
€12 325,55 in 2015
Processing times for daily allowance applications
We process daily allowance applications in the order in which they are received.
- For your first application, you should expect a processing time of approximately two weeks, although in some cases the application may be processed more quickly. The processing time depends, among other things, on whether we have received all the required attachments and whether the employment authority’s statement on your unemployment has been issued.
- We aim to process follow up applications without attachments within three days of receipt.
- Follow up applications with attachments (for example, applications for adjusted daily allowance) are processed within approximately one week of receipt.
When will your allowance be paid?
We pay earnings-related daily allowance on every business day. The allowance is usually paid to your bank account one or two banking days after the application has been processed. Public holidays may affect the payment schedule.
Processing time guarantee
A decision on earnings-related daily allowance is issued no later than 30 days from the date the application is received by the fund.
If the application is incomplete, the decision will be issued within 14 days from the date on which all information required to resolve the matter has been made available to the fund.
Application processing progress on the frontpage
We update the current processing status on the front page of our website on a daily basis, from Monday to Friday.
Busiest at the turn of the month
At the turn of the month, we always receive a higher number of applications, which may temporarily slow down processing.
Recovery of earnings-related daily allowance
Our members are required to report any circumstances that may affect the payment of the daily allowance (such as income from paid work or social benefits). If we pay daily allowance on false grounds or the amount of allowance is too high, we must recover the amount paid.
Failing to comply with the reporting obligation can, in addition to possible recovery of paid allowances, lead to administrative and criminal penalties.
Eligibility for earnings-related allowance
We can pay you a daily allowance if you are unemployed and have met the work requirement. The work requirement is met if you have both
- been an entrepreneur during membership of the Entrepreneur Fund for at least 15 months within the last 48 months of membership.
and - paid pension insurance based on at least the lowest insurance level that accrues the work requirement (€ 15 481 in 2026). Pension contributions must have been paid for the period of insurance.
Breaks in the work requirement?
You do not have to be self-employed continuously to meet the work requirement. We will take into account any period of at least four months during which you have been a self-employed member of the Entrepreneur Fund and have been a sufficiently insured during the last four years (48 months). We can extend the 48-month period by up to seven years if you have a valid reason for being absent from the labour market.
Acceptable reasons for being absent from the labour market include illness, rehabilitation, the birth of a child, caring for a child up to three years old, full-time studies, conscription, civilian service or other comparable reasons.
Have you not met the work requirement for entrepreneur?
If you have transferred from a wage-earners’ fund to the Entrepreneur Fund, but have not yet met the work requirement as an entrepreneur, you may be entitled to a wage-earners’ post-protection allowance, which is based on your earnings before you became an entrepreneur.
To qualify for post-protection allowance, you must join the Entrepreneur Fund within one month of resigning from the previous fund and your membership fees must be paid up to the date of transfer. In addition, one of these conditions must be met:
- you have met the 12 month work requirement for employees during the last 28 months before becoming unemployed
or - you received daily allowance from a wage-earners’ fund before joining the Entrepreneur Fund. In this case, we can pay you the same daily allowance as you were receiving before, up to the maximum daily allowance amount you can receive when you add up the daily allowances you received before.
Previous lower limits for accruing the work requirement
The lower limit for accruing work requirement benefit has been:
€15 128 in 2025
€14 803 in 2024
€14 088 in 2023
€13 573 in 2022
€13 247 in 2021
Sales profit
When you apply for daily allowance from the Entrepreneur Fund, you must fill in a sales profit report and submit it to the Fund as an attachment to your first application for daily allowance. A sales profit report form is used to assess the financial situation of your business.
Possible sales profits will affect when you can start receiving daily allowance. This means that sales profits do not prevent the payment of daily allowance, but may postpone the start of the allowance payments for up to 24 months.
Download or print the sales profit report here. Submit the report on sales profits to us on your Member Pages on the Attachments tab. If you have any difficulties with the form, fill it to the best of your ability and submit it to us along with the balance sheet for the last full financial year. We recommend that you include your accountant’s information on the form so that we may contact them for more information, which can often speed up the processing of your application.
How are sales profits generated ?
Sales profits may be generated if the balance sheet total of your company in the most recent full financial year, minus any liabilities, was more than 20,000 euros.
Any sales profit from fixed assets or other long-term investments of the company are also considered to be related to the closure of the company if they are received during the six months preceding the closure.
Please note that:
- sales profits may be generated even if you have not sold the business or a part of it or business assets.
- sales profits are calculated by deducting from the sale price (or fair value) of the business or business asset one of the following sums, whichever is higher: either the undepreciated acquisition cost plus selling costs, or the deemed acquisition cost, which for the purpose of unemployment benefits is always 50% of the sale price regardless of what is stated in tax legislation, for example. Finally, the company’s liabilities at the time of closing down the business are deducted from the amount.
How much can the payment of allowance be delayed?
Any generated sales profits are periodised starting from the date the business closes down. Periodisation means that we compare the sales profits and your income (insurance level) and only begin paying the daily allowance after the sales profits have covered the corresponding period of earned income (insurance level). The maximum period by which sales profits can postpone the payment of allowance is 24 months.
Example of periodisation:
- You have an insurance level of € 24,000 per year (€2,000 per month) and sales profits of €20,000 that are subject to periodisation.
- The sales profit of €20,000 euros is divided by your monthly earned income of €2,000 euros. The length of periodisation is therefore 10 months, meaning that the payment of your daily allowance starts after 10 months.
Please note that
- if the insurance level you have selected for the fund was mistakenly higher than the annual earned income used for your pension insurance, the annual earned income used in the periodisation of possible sales profits is the amount used in your pension insurance.
- you need to remain an active jobseeker during the periodisation of sales profits so that your work requirement and right to daily allowance remain valid.
When is the sales profit not assessed?
Sales profits are not assessed in certain situations. In this case, you only need to fill in sections 1-4 of the report form on basic information about yourself, your business and the duration of your business. Remember to include your signature and date at the end of the form in section 7.
Sales profit is not assessed if
- you have been in business for less than 18 months.
- the balance sheet total of your company’s most recent financial year, minus the company’s liabilities, is 20,000 euros or less.
- your business has ended with bankruptcy.
- you have stopped working as an entrepreneur due to prolonged inability to work, the end of seasonal business activity or because you have worked for a small number of clients in a situation comparable to an employee when your contractual relationships with clients ended.
- you are a part-time entrepreneur according to a statement by the employment authority.
Filling in the sales profit report
Fill in the form carefully and follow the instructions on the form. If you have more than one company, fill in a separate sales profit report for each company.
Section 1 Applicant’s information
Fill in your personal identity code and full name in this section.
Section 2 Company name
Fill in the name of your company.
Section 3 Company type
Tick the box for the correct type of company and your position in the company.
Section 4 Duration of business activity
Select and tick only one of the options, either 4 A or 4 B.
Select 4 A if your business has closed down. Please also give the reason for closing down the business.
Select 4 B if the company is still in business, but your employment with the company has ended for one of the following reasons:
- you are incapacitated and unable to work (you have received 300 days of sickness allowance from Kela)
- the company’s period of activity has ended due to the seasonal nature of the business (seasonality is assessed by the employment authority)
- your contractual relationship with a client has ended, if you are self-employed in a position comparable to a wage earner (assessed by the employment authority).
- closing down of the production line or lay-off
Section 5 Balance sheet review
In this section, fill in the balance sheet total of your business for the last full financial year or the value of the company’s assets as stated in the inventory, as well as all of the company’s liabilities as of the end of the last full financial year. As an attachment to the report, include the balance sheet for the last full financial year or, if you are not required to keep double-entry books, the inventory listing the company’s assets and liabilities.
If the balance sheet total, minus liabilities, is 20,000 euros or less, sales profit is not calculated and you do not need to fill in the remaining sections of the form.
If the balance sheet total is more than 20,000 euros, proceed to fill in the remaining sections.
Section 6 Sales profit calculation
In section 6 A, please report:
- The sale price of the sold business, shares or units.
- A deemed acquisition cost of 50% is automatically deducted from the sale price. Alternatively, you can use the undepreciated part of recorded actual acquisition costs, plus the costs of obtaining profit (sales costs), if their total exceeds 50% of the sale price.
In section 6 B, please report:
- The sale price, if any, received from the company’s fixed assets, inventories and other long-term investments. This number should include proceeds from the sales of fixed assets or other long-term investments received during the last 6 months before the closing down of the business.
- The company’s goodwill, if any, meaning the intangible value acquired in the sale. The acquisition cost is determined in the same way as in section 6 A.
In section 6 C, please report:
- The fair value of any unsold business assets not retained for personal use. Business assets include inventories, fixed assets and other long-term investments.
- An acquisition cost of 50% is automatically deducted from the sale price. Alternatively, you can use the undepreciated part of recorded actual acquisition costs, plus the costs of obtaining profit (sales costs), if their total exceeds 50% of the sale price.
- Include a reliable account of the fair value of the business assets, such as a purchase offer from a car dealership as proof of the fair value of a car, or a substantiated estimate from an auditor or accountant or a reliable purchase offer as proof of the fair value of machinery, equipment, inventory or other fixed and current assets.
The final sum of the sales profit calculation shown at the bottom of the page is the amount used for determining the length of periodisation, in other words when the payment of your allowance will begin.
Section 7 Date and signature
Please fill in the date and your signature. If you are submitting the form electronically, a signature is not needed.
Section ‘Accountant’s contact details’
Fill in your accountant’s contact details here if you give permission for the Entrepreneur Fund to contact the accountant directly with specific questions. Asking for additional details from your accountant often speeds up the processing of the application.
Attachments to the sales profit calculation
Attach the following to the sales profit calculation:
- Balance sheet for the last full financial year. If you were not obligated to keep a balance sheet, attach an inventory of your company’s assets and liabilities.
- Deeds of sale of shares or units in the company, if you have sold any.
- Deeds of sale of any sold business assets, or alternatively, accounts of the fair value of any unsold business assets.
Examples of periodisation of sales profits
Example 1
Sales profit is equal to half of your insurance level
- Your insurance level: €20,000
- Monthly income used as the basis for daily allowance: €20,000 divided by 12 = €1,666
- Sales profit: €10,000
- Periodisation: €10,000 divided by €1,666 = 6 months
Example 2
Sales profit is equal to your insurance level
- Your insurance level: €20,000
- Monthly income used as the basis for daily allowance: €20,000 divided by 12 = €1,666
- Sales profit: €20,000
- Periodisation: €20,000 divided by €1,666 = 12 months
Example 3
Sales profit is higher than your insurance level
- Your insurance level: €20,000
- Monthly income used as the basis for daily allowance: €20,000 divided by 12 = €1,666
- Sales profit: €35,000
- Periodisation: €35,000 divided by €1,666 = 21 months
Post-protection allowance
If you have transferred from an employees’ fund to the Entrepreneur Fund, but have not yet fulfilled the entrepreneur’s work requirement, and have work as an entrepreneur for under 18 months, you may be entitled to a wage-earner’s post-protection allowance. The daily allowance is in this case based on your earnings before you became self-employed.
To qualify for the post-protection allowance, you must join the Entrepreneur Fund within one month of leaving the previous fund. Your membership fees must be paid up until the end of the membership. In addition, you must have either
- met the work requirement in a wage-earner’s fund in the last 28 months before becoming unemployed , or
- received a daily allowance from a wage-earner’s fund before joining the Entrepreneur Fund.
If you received unemployment allowance from a wage-earner’s fund immediately before joining the Entrepreneur Fund, we can continue to pay the same daily allowance up to the maximum period of unemployment benefit (300, 400 or 500 days).
How do you estimate the amount of your daily allowance?
If your daily allowance is based on your previous earnings, you can calculate an estimate of the amount of your allowance using the calculator provided by the Joint Association of Unemployment Funds. The Entrepreneur Fund’s calculator is not suitable for this purpose.
Which documents should you provide??
Please provide us with at least:
- an application for earnins-related allowance for at least two weeks, but preferably four weeks
- a certificate of the annual income of your pension insurance for the current and the three previous years (or for the duration of your insurance, if you have had it for a shorter period). You can ask for the certificate from your pension insurance company.
- a sales profit report (fill in sections 1-4, date and signature)
- an employment contract, a certificate of employment and a notice of termination of your previous employment. However, if you received daily allowance from the Employees’ Fund before joining the Entrepreneurs’ Fund, we do not need any attachments relating to the termination of your employment. We will ask you directly for the information from your previous fund.
- a revised tax card for benefits. If you do not provide us with a revised tax card, your tax rate will be at least 25%.
We get your income data from the Incomes Register. If your income does not appear in the register, we will ask you to provide a salary certificate.
Submit attachments from the Attachments tab on your Member Pages.
Additional days for someone approaching retirement age
If you are close to retirement age and you are receiving an allowance based on wage-earner’s post- protection daily, you may be entitled to additional days of earnings-related daily allowance. This right does not apply in situations where the daily allowance is based on the entrepreneur’s work requirement.
We can pay earnings-related daily allowance beyond the maximum payment period up to age 65 in so-called additional days if.
- you were born in 1964 and will be 64 years old before the end of the maximum period
- you were born in 1961 or 1962 and turned 62 before the end of the maximum period
- you were born in 1963 and will be 63 years old before the end of the maximum period
Working while unemployed?
You can receive an adjusted daily allowance if you have part-time or short-term employment or start a new business. Notify the employment authority when you begin work.
For paid work, we can pay an adjusted earnings-related daily allowance if your working hours do not exceed 80 percent of the maximum working hours in the sector. For business activities, we can pay an adjusted daily allowance if your activity is either determined to be part-time or you have been granted a four-month entrepreneurship trial by the employment authority.
This is how you declare your work in your application:
Paid employment?
In the daily section of the application, mark the working days as “working”. Also report your working hours and minutes for those days.
Self-employment?
In the application, write in the additional information -field that you have worked as an entrepreneur. Do not fill in your working time in the daily section.
How does income affect your daily allowance?
If you work while unemployed, your earnings-related daily allowance will be adjusted. As a general rule, half of your earnings will be deducted from the unemployment allowance.
However, your unemployment allowance and your work income together cannot be higher than the salary used to calculate your unemployment allowance.
This salary is calculated by dividing your insurance level in the fund first by 12 and then by 21.5.
What documents do we need from you?
Paid work
Send us a copy of your employment contract. If you do not have a written employment contract, the employer must provide a statement of the essential terms of working for your employment relationship. We will obtain your salary information from the Incomes Register.
New or part-time business activity
Please submit a monthly profit and loss statement for your business or a calculation of your business’s income and expenses. If you are a part-owner of a company and insured under TyEL, we will obtain your monthly salary data from the Incomes Register. We will also obtain the income data of light entrepreneurs from the Incomes Register.
Allowance during the first four months of entrepreneurship
Four-month entrepreneurship trial
If you start a new business while unemployed, you can generally receive an adjusted earnings-related daily allowance for at least the first four months. The employment authority will provide a statement regarding the trial period. Whether your business activity is primary or secondary will not be assessed during the trial period.
After four months, the employment authority will issue a statement on whether your business activity is full-time or part-time or secondary. If your business activity is considered part-time, payment of the adjusted the earnings-related daily allowance will continue. If your activity is considered full-time, payment of the daily allowance will end.
How your daily allowance days are counted during work
We will pay up to 300, 400 or 500 days of earnings-related daily allowance, depending on your situation.
When we pay adjusted earnings-related daily allowance, the maximum payment period for earnings-related daily allowance will run in proportion to the number of days of earnings-related daily allowance we pay you.
An example:
- Your full daily allowance is €70 per day.
- You work part-time and you receive an adjusted allowance of €35 per day
- from an application period of 20 payment days, 10 days are counted towards the maximum payment period.
From entrepreneur to wage-earner
Being employed in paid work does not count towards the work requirement in the Entrepreneur Fund. If you accept full-time or long-term paid work, we recommend that you join a wage-earners’ unemployment fund to accrue the wage-earner’s work requirement.
- If you have met the entrepreneur’s work requirement while you have been a member of the Entrepreneur Fund and have received daily allowance from the Entrepreneur Fund, the work requirement remains valid with the wage-earner’s fund until you meet the work requirement for wage earners.
- If you have met the entrepreneur’s work requirement while you have been a member of the Entrepreneur Fund but have not received daily allowance from the Entrepreneur Fund, the work requirement will remain valid in the wage-earner’s fund for as long as it falls within 48 months of the start of unemployment.
In order for your unemployment security to be retained when transferring between unemployment funds, there must be no uninsured period exceeding one month between leaving the Entrepreneur Fund and joining a wage-earner’s unemployment fund, and all membership fees must be paid in full up to the end of the membership.
What if I get sick while unemployed?
You are not entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance for periods when you are ill.
You cannot receive unemployment benefit during your sick leave. Instead, apply to Kela for sickness allowance. In your daily allowance application to the Entrepreneur Fund, please indicate if you have applied for sickness allowance from Kela or from your insurance company..
However, we can pay unemployment allowance for the waiting days of Kela’s sickness allowance. If your illness continues after this period, Kela will pay you sickness allowance.
Please submit an unemployment allowance application for the waiting days of the sickness allowance granted by Kela. We receive your sickness allowance information directly from Kela.
If your insurance company pays you compensation due to incapacity for work or an accident, we require copies of the insurance company’s decisions.
Reduced capacity to work?
If your capacity to work is reduced but you are not completely unable to work, you may be entitled to partial sickness allowance or vocational rehabilitation.* Partial sickness allowance and vocational rehabilitation are paid by Kela and pension insurance companies. If you are not entitled to either of these benefits, you may apply for a disability pension.
*Vocational rehabilitation can be, for example, work coaching, work trial or training. Read more about rehabilitation and disability pension on Kela’s website and Tyoeläke.fi.
How to appeal a decision issued by the Fund?
Appealing a decision
You can appeal against an unemployment allowance decision issued by The Entrepreneur Fund. Your appeal must state which decision you are appealing (decision number), what change you are seeking, and the grounds for your appeal.
You will receive appeal instructions together with your decision. Please submit your written appeal to the fund via the Member Pages.
The fund will forward your appeal to the Social Security Appeal Board (SAMU). If you wish, you may further appeal against the decision issued by SAMU to the Insurance Court.
Courses or studies during unemployment?
During your unemployment, you can take part in employment promoting measures organised by the employment official. With the exception of independent studies you will generally receive compensation for expenses for the days of participation in these services.
The compensation is €9 per day, or around €194 per month. An increased compensation is paid when if your place of study is outside your commuting area or outside your home municipality, causing you to incur accommodation expenses. The increased compensation is €18 per day, or around €387 per month. The allowance is tax-free income.
Unemployment benefit is paid for the period of *employment promoting services, regardless of a suspension period or a waiting period.
*Employment promoting services
Services to promote employment include
- job search coaching
- career coaching
- work try-out
- rehabilitative work activities
- labour market training
- independent studies
For more information on the different services and how to apply for them, contact the employment authority.
Daily allowance during services promoting employment
The employment authority will provide the Fund with a statement on which service you are participating in and how long the service will last. We will pay you an income-related daily allowance and a compensation for expenses on the basis of the statement from the employment official.
In your daily allowance application, enter the name of the employment promoting service under each day of participation. In addition, indicate in your daily allowance application if you are absent from an employment support service. Please also indicate the *reason* for your absence in your application.
*Acceptable reason
Acceptable reasons for absence from services promoting employment include illness, illness of a child under 10 (up to four days), a job interview or a similar reason. In such cases, the absence is paid as a daily allowance without compensation of expenses. If you are absent for more than three days because of your own illness, please attach a medical certificate. Absences during periods of labour market training, independent study, work trial do not affect the daily allowance.