Frequently asked questions of lay-offs

 

I am about to be laid off. What should I do first?

Register as an unemployed jobseeker with the TE services on the first day of the lay-off at the latest. You can register as a jobseeker online. Your employer cannot register on your behalf. Your job search starts on the day you register. Earnings-related daily allowance can only be paid for the period for which your job search is active. The website of the TE services can be found here. 

What will be the amount of my earnings-related daily allowance?

You can calculate the rate of your daily allowance by visiting the unemployment fund’s electronic services which can be accessed here. Once you have logged in, you can find a link to the daily allowance calculator on the front page. 

When and how do I apply for daily allowance?

The most convenient way to apply is via our electronic services, which can be accessed by clicking here.

Please note that you cannot apply for earnings-related daily allowance in advance. The allowance is also not paid for a period of more than three months prior.

If you are laid off for an uninterrupted period of at least two weeks, fill in an application for earnings-related daily allowance for the first two weeks of lay-off and submit it to the unemployment fund after the two weeks have passed. If you are unable to use the electronic services for submitting the application, please send the application and attachments by post.

If you have been laid off on a regular schedule of every other week, please submit your application after three weeks from the start of your lay-off. For example, if your first week of lay-off is week 50 and your next week of lay-off is week 52, you should submit your application at the enod of week 52 (Sunday).

If you have been laid off to a shortened working week (your week includes full days of lay-off and full workdays), please submit your application after you have had at least 8 days of lay-off. If you have occasional days of lay-off you should submit your application for a shorter period to avoid “expiration” of your earnings-related daily allowance, because earnings-related daily allowance can only be paid for three months retroactively.

If you are laid off for seven days (= a waiting period) and you don't know when you will be laid off again, submit your application after the lay-off has ended.    

Attachments to be submitted with your application:

• Notice of lay-off provided by your employer. The unemployment fund accepts for example a notice which is sent by e-mail and not signed “with a pen”.
• Any decisions on social benefits (see the application form for information on which decisions are required)
• Tax decision if you have part-time business activities, such as agricultural or forestry activities
• Revised tax card if you have not requested for it to be delivered directly to the unemployment fund. The unemployment fund has received new tax information, which came into effect on 1 February, directly from the Tax Administration and withholding tax will be collected based on this information if you have not submitted a revised tax card. Please note that these tax cards have a withholding tax rate of at least 25 percent.

You can order a revised tax card for the payment of earnings-related daily allowance from MyTax.

The unemployment fund has received information on earned income from the Incomes Register since 1 January 2020 and, in theory, there is no need to submit your pay statements. However, it has become evident that the information is often incomplete. Therefore, the unemployment fund may need to request supplementation if the information is not sufficient for calculating you daily allowance. Thus, pay statements can still be sent to improve the efficiency of processing. Earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of earned income from approximately six months prior to the lay-off (if the working condition has been met during this period). For example, if your lay-off starts in January, you can submit pay statements from 1 July to 31 December.

What to do after sending my first application?

If you have submitted your initial application to the unemployment fund and your lay-off continues, please submit your next application after four more calendar weeks have passed. If we pay you adjusted daily allowance, please align your daily allowance applications with your wage payment period and submit your applications either monthly or every four weeks.  

I went to your electronic services to view my Incomes Register data, but it says that the data is missing. Why is that?

The unemployment fund does not receive the information from the Incomes Register until after you have submitted your application to the fund. If you wish to view your Incomes Register information before submitting your application, you must log in to the Incomes Register (www.tulosrekisteri.fi).

How can I check the processing status of my application?

You can view the progress of your application from our electronic services. The overall processing status of applications received by the unemployment fund is shown on the front page of our website. 

Does the form of lay-off affect the payment of daily allowance?

Yes, it does. The most straightforward form of lay-off is being fully laid off for full calendar weeks. If this is not possible, another straightforward form of lay-off is being laid off for full workdays during a calendar week (shortened working week). However, this form of lay-off might place you within the scope of adjusted daily allowance if you also have other income, such as income from a secondary occupation or business activities. In such case, we take into consideration the pay you receive from your employer and the secondary income or business income and will pay you adjusted daily allowance. If you are employed part-time and you are laid off to a shortened working week (you have both workdays and days of lay-off in the course of a calendar week) we will pay you adjusted daily allowance.

A more complicated form of lay-off is mixed-form lay-off, meaning that you have shortened workdays and full days of lay-off in the course of the same calendar week. In these cases, we pay you adjusted daily allowance and your income is allocated to the period during which it was paid.

Is earnings-related daily allowance paid for public holidays? 

If you receive monthly salary and are laid off for part of a month that includes public holidays, we will not pay you earnings-related daily allowance for the public holidays because salary is not generally reduced due to these holidays. For example, if you are laid off, for example, during Easter week, we will pay you earnings-related daily allowance for 4 days. There are some sectors for which public holidays can be considered to be days of lay-off because work is generally performed on public holidays. In such case, we will pay earnings-related daily allowance for public holidays if they would have been workdays were it not for the lay-off and if pay has been deducted from the days of lay-off. Public holiday compensation may be paid on some sectors, in which case earnings-related daily allowance is not paid for the public holidays due to the compensation. 

How do I pay my membership fees during a lay-off?

If you are fully laid off (you do not receive earned income) you do not need to pay your membership fees yourself. You also do not need to separately report the lay-off to the membership services of your union. The unemployment fund will collect your membership fee from your daily allowance. In such case, the membership fee is EUR 0.32 per each day of daily allowance. If you are partially laid off (you receive earned income), please pay your membership fee as normal.

I am employed part-time and work 0 to 37.5 hours per week as needed. My employer notified me that they cannot offer me work for the next two weeks. Do I need to submit documentation on this to the unemployment fund?

No, you do not, because a minimum number of weekly working hours has not been defined in your contract. You can apply for daily allowance as normal in accordance with your previous application schedule and report that you are unemployed on the weeks for which your employer did not offer you any work. 

I had already agreed on my annual leave, but now I will be laid off. How do I report my annual leave?

Report your annual leave in your application for earnings-related daily allowance by entering “leave” next to the days included in your annual leave. Earnings-related daily allowance is not paid for the period of annual leave, but the payment of earnings-related daily allowance continues as normal after the annual leave.

Does my annual holiday bonus affect the payment of my earnings-related daily allowance?

No, it does not, if the bonus is paid on the basis of annual leave from full-time employment.

I will be paid a holiday bonus for full-time work during my lay-off. Will it affect my daily allowance?

No, it will not.

I can use my telephone benefit during my lay-off. Does this affect the payment of my earnings-related daily allowance?

No, it does not, if you are laid off for full days and we pay you full earnings-related daily allowance for the days of lay-off. 

Does the lay-off notice need to be signed?

The unemployment fund does not require this, and a notice sent by means such as email is sufficient.

I am fully laid off. What do I need to do if I fall ill during my lay-off?

If you are fully laid off and the illness only lasts for a few days, we will pay you earnings-related daily allowance as normal. If your sick leave lasts more than 10 days, you must apply for sickness allowance from Kela, because earnings-related daily allowance can only be paid for the duration of Kela’s waiting period pursuant to the Health Insurance Act. You can find the application for sickness allowance on Kela’s website.

I have been laid off to shorter workdays. What do I do if I fall ill?

If you fall ill during your lay-off we will pay you adjusted daily allowance for the duration of the waiting period for sickness allowance granted by Kela (=the first day of illness + 9 working days, Saturdays included), provided that we have paid you daily allowance for the day preceding the illness. It is not possible to receive adjusted daily allowance after the waiting period for the sickness allowance. Your employer will apply for sickness allowance from Kela for the duration of the employer’s obligation to pay wages. You can apply for the remaining part of the sickness allowance for the duration of the employer’s obligation to pay wages. It is possible that there remains nothing to be paid, but Kela will calculate this individually for each applicant. If nothing remains to be paid, it is possible to apply for social assistance. 

Can I earn money during my lay-off? Does the exempt amount of EUR 300 apply?

If you are fully laid off and perform temporary work for another employer for no more than two weeks, we can pay you adjusted daily allowance. The exempt amount of EUR 300 applies to this situation. This means that you can earn EUR 300 per month without it affecting your daily allowance.   
The exempt amount of EUR 300 does not apply if you are fully laid off and work short periods, such as two days per month, for the employer who laid you off. The reason for this is that we do not pay you adjusted daily allowance in such case. Daily allowance will not be paid for the workdays, but it will be paid for the actual days of lay-off.

Please note that the protection amount is no longer available in the application periods starting from 1 April 2024.

I am on old-age pension, but I have continued to work and will now be laid off. Am I entitled to earnings-related daily allowance?

Earnings-related daily allowance cannot be paid because old-age pension is a benefit that prevents the payment of the allowance.  

I have started to receive partial early old-age pension while still working and now I am being laid off. Am I entitled to daily allowance?

Earnings-related daily allowance can be paid because partial early old-age pension is not a benefit that affects the payment of the allowance. You can still collect the pension during your lay-off and earnings-related daily allowance will be paid in full. The pension is not deducted from the earnings-related daily allowance.    

I am on partial disability pension and I am being laid off. How will the rate of my earnings-related daily allowance be calculated and how does my pension affect my daily allowance?

The rate of your earnings-related daily allowance is determined on the basis of earned income you received before your pension if you have been an unemployment fund member during this time. The partial disability pension is deducted in full from your earnings-related daily allowance. For example, if your pension is EUR 1,000 per month, you will receive EUR 1,000 less in earnings-related daily allowance.

If you are laid off to a shortened working week, meaning that you have both workdays and days of lay-off in the same calendar week, we will pay you adjusted and reduced daily allowance. This means that 100 percent of the pension is deducted from the earnings-related daily allowance. We will also take into consideration any earned income paid to you for the month of lay-off and pay you adjusted daily allowance. This may result in the remaining earnings-related daily allowance being EUR 0.

My lay-off was cancelled but I had already registered as a jobseeker. What do I need to do?

Notify the TE Office about the cancellation of your lay-off. The TE Office will then provide the unemployment fund with a statement on the cancellation of your lay-off. 

My lay-off ended sooner than previously agreed. What do I need to do?

Notify the TE Office about the end of your lay-off. If there are days of lay-off from which you have not yet received daily allowance, please submit an application for the remaining days of lay-off.   

Questions related to calculating daily allowance

The unemployment fund says that it receives information on earned income from the Incomes Register. Do I need to submit pay statements?

In theory, you do not need to submit pay statements because the unemployment fund primarily uses information obtained from the Incomes Register. However, the problem is that employers have reported income information to a varying degree and we often need to request supplementation. If you already know that the income information reported by your employer is very basic (e.g. no itemisation of holiday bonus) we advise you to submit pay statements with your application. For example, if your lay-off starts in December, you can submit pay statements from 1 June to 30 November.
Please note that there are certain exceptions which result in the daily allowance being calculated based on a period other than that immediately preceding the lay-off. This is the case if you have been on parental leave or child care leave and you have not met the 26-week working condition between your return to work and the start of your lay-off, for example.  

I am on partial child care leave and I am being laid off. What period is used for determining the rate of my daily allowance?

The rate of your earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of the work you have performed before your partial child care leave, provided that you have been an unemployment fund member at this time. If you have been on parental leave and child home care allowance before the partial child care leave, these periods are skipped over and the rate of earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of work performed prior to the parental leave, provided that you have been a member of the unemployment fund and met the 26-week working condition before taking parental leave. The length of your partial child care leave does not matter in this case. This means that the period based on which the daily allowance is calculated may be very long. However, an index adjustment cannot be applied to the amount of daily allowance. Ask your employer for pay statements from the time preceding your partial child care leave, because the period of child care leave is not indicated in the Incomes Register. 
If you have joined the unemployment fund during your partial child care leave your rate of daily allowance has to be calculated on the basis of pay received during the child care leave.
If you receive partial or flexible care allowance from Kela during the lay-off, the amount of the allowance is deducted from your unemployment allowance. 

I am on partial early old-age pension. What period is used for determining the rate of my earnings-related daily allowance?

The rate of earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of income from the period immediately preceding your lay-off, even if you have worked part-time after the start of partial early old-age pension. The period of partial early old-age pension cannot be skipped over when calculating the rate of earnings-related daily allowance. However, partial early old-age pension does not affect the payment of the earnings-related daily allowance, because the pension is not a benefit that reduces the daily allowance.    

I have been studying since January and worked part-time alongside my studies. My employer will lay me off in December. What period is used for determining the rate of my daily allowance?

Unfortunately, a period of studies cannot be skipped over when determining the rate of earnings-related daily allowance if you have worked at least 18 hours per week during your studies. This means that these weeks are taken into consideration when calculating the rate of earnings-related daily allowance.

I have voluntarily worked part-time. What period is used for determining the rate of my earnings-related daily allowance when I am laid off?

If you have worked at least 18 hours per week in part-time employment the rate of earnings-related daily allowance is determined on the basis of earned income from the period immediately preceding the lay-off. This means that the rate of earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of the period during which the working condition has been met. In practice, this period is approximately six months.

My income was considerably higher last winter compared to this autumn. I will be laid off in December. How long is the period used for determining the rate of my earnings-related daily allowance?

Earnings-related daily allowance is calculated on the basis of income prior to the lay-off, from the period during which the 26-week working condition was met. Unfortunately, the period used as a basis for calculating the rate of your earnings-related daily allowance cannot be extended based on your income being higher last winter.