On this page you will find answers to the most common questions that concern our customers the most.
Register as an unemployed job seeker on your first day of unemployment at the latest. You can register as a job seeker through E-services (Työmarkkinatori). Registration can also be done in advance. Unemployment allowance can only be paid for the time you are registered as a job seeker with employment authorities.
Then read the instructions on our website Claiming the allowance.
Register as an unemployed job seeker on your first day of unemployment at the latest. You can register as a job seeker through E-services (Työmarkkinatori). Registration can also be done in advance.
Employment authorities will ask you for an explanation for why you quit your job. If employment authorities considers that there was no valid reason for quiting your job, they will impose a mandatory waiting period, for which you have no right to unemployment allowance. Unemployment allowance can be paid after the mandatory waiting period, if you are still unemployed and registered as a job seeker.
Read more about the mandatory waiting period imposed by employment authorities.
Then read the instructions on our website Claiming the allowance.
Your right to unemployment allowance will be examined at the fund when the application you have sent to the fund is being processed. On our website Conditions for claiming allowance you can see what kind of work meets the work requirement needed.
You can send an application for unemployment allowance via WebKassa -service.
Read more about sending the application.
As a member of a unemployment fund you should always apply for unemployment allowance from the fund. The fund will based on your application and its attachments examine if you have fulfilled the work requirement. If the work requirement has not been met, you will receive a written decision. After that you can apply for unemployment benefits from Kela.
If you are paid vacation compensation (lomakorvaus) for a full-time employment that has lasted more than 2 weeks, you are not entitled to unemployment allowance for a period of time for which the vacation compensation received corresponds to as salary. For example, when 3 weeks of unused vacation is paid as monetary compensation, you have no right to unemployment allowance for approximately 3 weeks after your employment.
You can send your first application via WebKassa -service, when you have been a job seeker for two weeks. If your unemployment or lay-off lasts less than two weeks, you can send an application as soon as your unemployment or lay-off ends.
Claims for unemployment allowance must always be made retroactively. An application for daily allowance can therefore be made only up to the current day.
If you have become unemployed, read more detailed instructions on our website Claiming the allowance.
If you have been laid off, read more detailed instructions on our website Claiming allowance for the lay-off period
After the first application further application must be sent either in periods of 4 calendar weeks (from Monday to Sunday) or monthly. The application must always be made retroactively. Therefore you can send the nex application via WebKassa -service on the last day of the next application period at the earliest.
If you are unemployed, read more detailed instructions on our website Claiming the allowance.
If you are laid off, read more detailed instructions on our website Claiming allowance for the lay-off period
We need attachments to examine if you have fulfilled the work requirement and to calculate the amount of your daily allowance. We want to make sure you get exactly the daily allowance you are entitled to.
Although it takes a while to submit the attachments, we have made the application process itself as simple as possible. The experts at the fund will determine the factors affecting the amount of the daily allowance on the basis of your application, the information in the Incomes Register and the attachments you provide.
You can speed up the processing of your application by enclosing the required attachments to your application.
The absence of attachments to your application will significantly slow down the processing of your application. We send a request for the missing information primarily by a message send via WebKassa -service, from which you will receive an e-mail notification. Please make sure, that the fund has your currant e-mail address on My data / Contact data -page of WebKassa..
If you have became unemployd, read more detailed instructions on our website Attachments for an application.
If you have been laid off, read more detailed instruction on our website Attachments for an application when laid off.
You can send attachments to the fund via WebKassa -service either in connection with the application or via the "Send attachments" -link on the front page of WebKassa -service
The Incomes Register is a national electronic database, which was designed primary for the needs of the Tax Administration. The information that unemployment funds need are mostly voluntary information that the employers can report if they want to. Unfortunately, most employers do not report all the information the funds need.
Read more about the information available on the Income Register.
On the Income and tax details -page of WebKassa, you can check if the fund has your latest tax card. If the fund doesn't have your tax card, send a copy of it with you application or order a revision tax card for social benefits from My Tax -service.
The benefits paid by the unemployment fund (unemployment allowance, mobility allowance and alternation compensation) are not salary, and are therefore taxed differently from salary income. Read more about the taxation of benefits.
If you start a part-time job, where the working hours are a maximum of 80% of full-time hours, you can receive adjusted unemployment allowance during your part-time work. To receive the adjusted allowance you must be a registered as a job seeker looking for full-time employment.
Read more about adjusted allowance.
If you are in full-time employment and your working hours are reduced on your own initiative or you enter into an agreement with your employer to reduce your working hours, you have no right to adjusted unemployment allowance.
Salary received from part-time work or a gig job are taken into consideration for the application period during which the salary is paid. That is, for the period to which the pay date falls. Thus, when salary is paid retrospectively, earned income may acceft the daily allowance for a different period than during which the work was actually done.
Further applications of those who have been fully unemployed will be processed as soon as possible. The fund strives to process all other applications wihthin two weeks of their arrival, but processing times may vary. It is a good idea to prepare for a processing time of at least 1-2 weeks. The law requires us to give you a decision within 30 days of receiving the application, provided that all necessary information is available to us.
Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a bulletin of processing time on our website. By following the bulletin, you will see when the application we are currently processing have arrived to the fund. You can check the status of your own application on the Application processing status -page of WebKassa.
When your application has been processed, you will receive a notification of payment via SMS. Please make sure, that the fund has your current mobile phone number on My data / Contact data -page of WebKassa.
All applications are processed in the order they came in. The fund cannot process applications past the queue because we know that each of our customers is in a hurry to get their money. A carefully comleted application and submission of all attachments without a separate request is the most effective way to ger your money paid quickly.
It is a good idea to always prepare for a processing time of at least 1-2 weeks, even if your previoius applications have been processed within a few days.
Due to data security legislation, the unemployment fund cannot notify your trade union of your unemployement or lay-off. Please notify your union of any changes in your situation yourself, so that your union can update your memberhip information.
The easiest way to make notifications to your own union is through their the on-line-services. Contact information for the unions can be found here.
