Conditions for Earnings-Related Allowance

Who can receive the allowance?

• We pay the earnings-related unemployment allowance to unemployed persons, laid-off workers, and part-time employees aged 18–64, if the part-time work or reduced working hours are based on the employer’s initiative.
• Payment requires that all eligibility conditions are met.
• In cases of layoff, the allowance may still be paid to persons aged 65–68.

Your job search must be active when applying

• You must register as an unemployed jobseeker with the employment authorities no later than on your first day of unemployment.
• You must also be available for full-time work.

You must meet both the employment and membership conditions

• You are entitled to the earnings-related allowance when you meet the 12-month employment condition and the membership condition.

More about the membership condition

• You meet the membership condition when you have been a member of the fund for 12 months (one year).
• The membership condition is accumulated in full calendar months, meaning you can join the fund on any day of the month.
• Your membership start date does not need to be the first day of a calendar month.

More about the employment condition

• The employment condition must be met during your membership and after you have turned 18.
• It can be accumulated within a 28-month review period. See more information on this page under the section Review Period.
• The employment condition is assessed per calendar month.
• The requirement is 12 calendar months, i.e. one year.

Assessment based on pay received

• When determining eligibility, the payment date of the wages is what matters.
• The period of earning (the time when the corresponding work was done) only matters when wages or bonuses are paid for an extended period or when payment is delayed due to the employer.

Review period

• The review period means that the employment condition must be fulfilled within 28 months.
  In other words, the employment condition does not need to be met in one continuous period.
• The review period can be extended by up to seven years for acceptable reasons defined in the Unemployment Security Act. Acceptable reasons include, for example, full-time studies, illness, and caring for a child under the age of three.

• However, the following periods do not count toward the employment condition: periods during which you have received partial sickness allowance or reduced sick pay (for example, two-thirds pay) or periods during which you have received parental allowance.

Employment condition during subsidized employment and employment obligation

• Subsidized employment (palkkatukityö) does not accrue the employment condition if the work started on or after 2 September 2024, unless the subsidy was granted for the employment of a person aged 60 or over or someone with reduced work capacity.
• For persons aged 60 or over and those with reduced work capacity, the employment condition begins to accrue after 10 months of subsidized employment.
• From the 11th month onward, the employment condition accrues at 75% of the working time. In practice, this means that to fully meet the employment condition, persons aged 60 or over or with reduced work capacity must have 26 months of subsidized employment.

You may lose your right to the earnings-related allowance if you

• are absent from the labor market for more than six months without an acceptable reason under the Unemployment Security Act
• have worked as a full-time entrepreneur for 1.5 years
• switch unemployment funds and there is a break of more than one month between memberships

Some members are still covered by the previous law

• Until 1 September 2024, the employment condition requirement was 26 calendar weeks (i.e., about 6 months). 

• If, for work performed after 1 September 2024, you have not earned at least 465 euros per month, you are still covered by the previous employment condition. If you do not meet the employment or membership condition, you may still be eligible for Kela’s basic unemployment allowance or labor market subsidy. In such cases, please contact Kela directly.