Is your employment ending before Christmas?

If your full-time employment ends before Christmas, you can submit your first application once you have been unemployed for at least two full calendar weeks. For example, if the last day of your employment is December 20, 2024, you can submit your first application starting Sunday, January 5, 2025, for the period from December 21, 2024, to January 5, 2025. Remember to register as a job seeker with the TE Office no later than on your first day of unemployment!

If you have been working part-time, which ends before Christmas, continue applying for daily allowance according to your normal application schedule even after the employment ends.

Is your employment endind at the turn of the year?

If your full-time employment ends on December 31, 2024, you can submit your first application starting January 19, 2025, for the period from January 1, 2025, to January 19, 2025.

Please note that the Job Market will be unavailable over the turn of the year due to system updates. The downtime will begin on December 30, 2024, at 8:00 AM and end on January 2, 2025, at 8:00 AM. This update is due to the transfer of employment services responsibility from the state to municipalities, during which the TE Offices will be closed, and their tasks will be transferred to new employment regions. If you’d like, you can read more about this on our website’s news Registration as an unemployed jobseeker interrupted starting from December 30.12.2024.

If you have been working part-time, which ends at the turn of the year, continue applying for daily allowance according to your normal application schedule.

Does your employment include an unpaid leave?

If your employment contract includes unpaid leave periods (so-called periods comparable to layoffs) when the contract was made, you may be entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance for the unpaid leave. Being registered as a job seeker is also a requirement for eligibility for the unemployment allowance, so make sure to register as a job seeker on time!

If your employment is part-time and you have applied for adjusted daily allowance for the duration of your employment, submit your application according to your regular schedule, even if the application period includes an unpaid leave period or part of it. In part-time work situations, the daily allowance is paid adjusted for the entire application period, meaning the part-time earnings are adjusted according to the usual practices based on the payment day.

If your employment is full-time, you can submit your first application for at least two full calendar weeks. For example, if the unpaid leave period starts on December 14, 2024, you can submit your first application no earlier than December 29, 2024. If you wish, you can also submit the application for the entire unpaid leave period in one go.

What attachments are needed?

All the necessary attachments often become clear only as the application is processed. The most common attachment required is the employment contract. Other commonly required attachments are listed on our website under the section Applying for Earnings-related Allowance.

If you have a full-time employment contract and are paid holiday compensation for unused vacation days, submitting a payslip may speed up the processing of your application. Holiday compensation for full-time work is periodised, and there is no entitlement to daily allowance for the periodisation time. If desired, you can read more about the periodisation of holiday compensation on our website.

Are you uncertain about your entitlement to benefits?

If you are unsure whether you are entitled to earnings-related daily allowance during an unpaid leave or unemployment period, we recommend submitting an application to verify your entitlement. In this case, make sure to register as a job seeker, as being registered is a strict requirement for eligibility for the daily allowance. You can also send us a message via Openetti if you would like more specific guidance.

You can read more about the general requirements for entitlement to earnings-related daily allowance on our website under the section Right to Earnings-related Daily Allowance.

Take note of the change in your tax card

Starting from 2025, tax cards will become effective from the beginning of January, whereas previously they became effective in February.

The tax card that becomes effective at the beginning of January applies to salary income, meaning the withholding tax rate used for benefit payments will be increased to at least 25%, even if the tax rate on the card is lower.

We recommend that daily allowance recipients order a revised tax card for benefits, as this will ensure the withholding tax rate is calculated based on benefit income. In this case, the withholding tax rate can be less than 25%. It is advisable to order the tax card before the turn of the year.

Read more about this in our news article, accessible via the button below.