Frequently asked questions

You should register no later than on the first day of your unemployment. You can also register as a jobseeker before the start of your unemployment or layoff. More information: JobMarket Finland

Your entitlement to an earnings-related allowance can begin or the first day of the waiting period (if applicable) can be set no earlier than on the day on which your job search becomes valid.

If you become unemployed from full-time work, sunmit your first application for at least two full calendar weeks (Monday to Sunday). Going forward, earnings-related allowance is applied for in periods of either four full calendar weeks (Mon-Sun) or one month. The future application rhythm for each applicant will be determined during the processing of the first application, and a separate information message about the future application rhythm will be sent to the applicant via Openetti.

The application must cover each day from Monday to Sunday and can only be submitted on the last day of the application period at the earliest. In other words, the allowance is applied for retroactively, for time already passed.

The attachments required for the earnings-related allowance application depend on your circumstances. Your application should provide an account of your activities prior to becoming unemployed.

We will receive information about the salary and employment from the incomes register. This means that we will receive primarily information about the salary from the register. Basically, you do not need to send us payslips or pay certificates with the applications.

Please notice that, if the register does not have the relevant information about your salary and employment, we will ask more information from your accountant or you about your salary and employment. Sending the last payslip with your application can possibly speed up the processing of your application.

The most commonly required attachments are listed on our website under the section Applying for earnings-related allowance.

No, you do not. If the employer’s account shows the same information as
is required on the unemployment fund’s form, the employer’s form serves
as a weekly working hours report. 

A tax decision is required as an attachment to your allowance application if you are engaged in part-time business activities. In the adjustment of your allowance, we will base your income from your part-time business activities on the earned-income portion of your business income as confirmed in your personal taxation, plus any salary you may have received from your business.

You do not need to send your tax card to the unemployment fund, as we usually receive our members’ tax information for tax withholding directly from the Tax Administration.

You can request a revised tax card for benefits to be sent directly to the unemployment fund through the Tax Administration’s online service MyTax, for example. Select “Opetus ja tiede Tk” (The Unemployment Fund for Education and Science) as the payer of the benefit. This way we receive the tax information automatically to our system usually during the following business day. If you request the revised tax card in another way, please send it to us either by Openetti or by post.

Please note that the tax withholding information that becomes valid on 1 January is requested from the Tax Administration on the basis of membership. If you joined at the turn of the year or later, please check from Openetti in Personal information – Tax data whether we have received information on your tax withholding rate. If there is no tax data, please order a revised tax card for earnings-related allowance in MyTax.

The withholding tax for an earnings-related allowance is the basic rate on a tax card determined for employment income, however, no less than 25 %.

If you provide the unemployment fund with a revised tax card determined for benefits, the tax withholding percentage indicated on it is not increased. You can request the revised tax card for benefits to be sent directly to the unemployment fund through the Tax Administration’s online service, for example.

More information on the taxation of earnings-related allowance is available on the website of the Tax Administration at vero.fi.

If you are applying for daily allowance in the Openetti service, submit an application until the beginning of your full-time employment. The application asks you to answer why you are applying for a shorter period of time? Here you can enter the start date of your full-time employment.

Your full-time employment begins on the date from which you receive a salary based on your full-time work. For this reason, we may ask you to provide a copy of your employment contract/commission/decision on being accepted for a public office, as this document specifies the first date of your employment or public service relationship and, hence, the date from which you will be paid. This is especially relevant for teaching work at educational institutions.

Example:

Anne starts work as a classroom teacher. The first day of employment is on 10 August , but the salary is paid from 1 August . Anne is not entitled to an unemployment allowance starting from 1 August.

If you are applying for daily allowance in the Openetti service, submit an application until the beginning of your full-time employment. The application asks you to answer why you are applying for a shorter period of time? Here you can enter the start date of your full-time employment. If your employment starts in the middle of the calendar month, you should append a copy of your employment contract/commission/decision on being accepted for a public office, as this document specifies the first date of your employment or public service relationship and, hence, the date from which you will be paid.

You can submit a follow-up application (fill in the application for 4 weeks), even though the first application has not yet been processed. Openetti / the application directs you to apply by filling in more limited information than when filling in your first application.

Starting from 2.9.2024, the membership and employment condition requirements related to the right to earnings-related daily allowance changed due to legislative amendments. As of September 2, 2024m eligibility for earnings-related daily allowance requires that you have been a member of an unemployment fund for at least 12 months and that you have met the 12-calendar-month employment condition during your membership.

At the same time, the employment condition was monetized, meaning that as of September 2, 2024, the employment condition accrues based on the salary paid for the work rather than the number of hours worked, as previously.

Eligibility for the earnings-related daily allowance also requires an unobstructed statement from the emoloyment authority regarding the right to the allowance.

The right to the daily allowance can only be determined based on the application, attachments, and the statement provided by the employment authority.

The earnings-related allowance is calculated on the basis of your established pay preceding your unemployment. Certain pay components are deducted from the established pay, such as the holiday bonus and holiday compensation. In addition, a percentage is deducted from the pay equivalent to 60 per cent of the total amount of the employee’s employment pension, unemployment insurance and sickness insurance contributions. In 2025, the deducted percentage is 3.54%. The daily pay is established by dividing the monthly salary by 21.5.

The amount of your earnings-related allowance is calculated when your first allowance application is processed. You can use the allowance calculator to calculate an approximate estimate of your earnings-related allowance.

Unemployment allowance can only be paid after a waiting period. The waiting period is spent when you have been registered as an unemployed jobseeker with the employment authority for seven fully unemployed days or an equivalent period. For example, if you work every day for 50% of the hours of a full-time employee, it will take about 14 days for your waiting period to be spent.

The waiting period must accrue during a maximum of eight consecutive calendar weeks. The waiting period is not counted during weekends. It cannot include days during which you would not be eligible for an allowance for some other reason (for example, during a suspension period or before your membership condition is met).

The waiting period is set when you are applying for an allowance for the first time. When the employment condition is re-fulfilled during your unemployment (part-time employment or periods/days of full-time employment), the waiting period is set again.

The most typical maximum payment period for an earnings-related allowance among our members is 400 payment days. The allowance is paid for five days a week. If you are fully unemployed and your allowance can be paid without any interruptions, this amounts to 80 weeks of allowance. Another way to calculate the duration is to use the average number of days per calendar month, 21.5 The entitlement to an allowance would then continue for just over 18 months.

However, members of our fund rarely receive an uninterrupted allowance; it is common that they are employed in between allowance periods. This can result in the re-fulfilment of the employment condition. When you re-fulfil the employment condition, you are entitled to another maximum payment days. See Re-determination of the earnings-related allowance.

There are special provisions in the Act on Unemployment Security regarding the maximum payment period of an earnings-related allowance for ageing allowance recipients. See Payment period of earnings-related allowance.

You may be able entitled to adjusted allowance, if

• you are working part-time (however, not if the working hours have been reduced at your own instigation), or

• your daily or weekly working hours have been reduced due to a lay-off, or

• you have accepted full-time employment lasting no more than two weeks while being unemployed, or

• you receive income from business activities or self-employment, if this is considered part-time by the employment authority

• you receive royalties, writer’s fees, etc.

The payment of an adjusted allowance requires that your working hours do not exceed 80% of an employee’s maximum full-time working hours in that sector during the allowance claim period (4 calendar weeks or one month). You must also have a current application for full-time employment with the employment authority.

More information: Adjusted and reduced daily allowance

Half of the income earned during the adjustment period (a month or four calendar weeks) reduces the full earnings-related allowance. However, the combined total of wages and the adjusted allowance cannot exceed 100% of the salary on which the allowance is based.

Example:

A works part-time during a monthly adjustment period, earning a total of €800. Half of this amount, €400, reduces the full allowance.

Additional information: Amount of adjusted allowance

Until 31 March 2024, an exempt amount (€300 or €279) applied to adjusted allowance, meaning that only half of the income exceeding the exempt amount reduced the full allowance. The exempt amount was discontinued on 1 April 2024 following a legislative amendment.

If your employment condition is met again during the earnings-related allowance period, the allowance will be recalculated based on the earnings that accrued towards meeting the employment condition. If the employment condition was fulfilled through part-time work, the amount of the earnings-related allowance will be calculated based on the salaries from part-time jobs. However, your new full daily allowance will be at least 80% of your previous full daily allowance. If your new employment condition is met after the maximum duration of the earnings-related allowance has been reached, this 80% safeguard rule does not apply.

You can read more about this under the sections Right to Earnings-Related Daily Allowance and The Amount of Earnings-Related Allowance.

Apply for the adjusted allowance according to the payment periods of your part-time employment, in application periods of one calendar month, one month or four calendar weeks. Enter your working hours in the calendar section of the application.

If the salary is not paid during your application period,  please inform the estimated payment date, your employer and task in the application.  You should also send the unemployment fund a copy of your employment contract, if the employment lasts for more than two weeks. Be sure to keep your job search valid with the employment authority.

More information: Adjusted and reduced daily allowance

Part-time employment with a monthly salary

If you are in part-time employment and your working hours vary by week/course, but you receive a fixed monthly salary during the term/school year/temporary post, enter your actual working hours on which your monthly salary is based for each calendar week. You can enter the total weekly working hours on the line given for Sunday. However, you can enter no more than 24 hours for one day so divide the hours between Saturday and Sunday, if necessary. If you have worked overtime or as a substitute teacher for your own employer, please enter these hours on the line for the days on which the work was performed. If you receive pay during holidays, be sure to complete the working hours that form the basis of the salary also for holiday periods.

You can enter employers on the application, specified by employer. The application provides different lines by employer, where you can enter the work for different employers for the same day on different lines.

Hourly-based part-time employment

If your salary is paid according to completed working hours, enter your actual working hours for each working day on your application.

You can enter employers on the application, specified by employer. The application provides different lines by employer, where you can enter the work for different employers for the same day on different lines.

Monthly-paid and hourly-paid employment simultaneously

If you hold several jobs with different grounds for payment, please enter the weekly hours that form the basis of the employment with a monthly salary on the line given for Sunday (and if necessary, distributed to Saturday) on your application. If you have worked overtime or as a substitute teacher for your employer, please enter the overtime/substitute hours for the days on which you have worked. In addition, enter your actual working hours for which you are paid by the hour on the lines for all the other working days.

Why do I need to report my working hours?

Employment income is principally adjusted with the earnings-related allowance in the period in when the salary is paid to you. However, working hours must always be entered in the application according to the actual working times for the purposes of working hours review. Inform also an estimated payment date and the name of the employer.

More information: Applying for adjusted earnings-related allowance

The employment authority will issue a binding statement to the unemployment fund on whether you are self-employed in business activities and whether your business activities should be considered full-time or part-time. The employment authority assesses the nature of your business activities on the basis of the amount of work, not the amount of earned income.

If you are a part-time entrepreneur, you can receive an adjusted earnings-related allowance after the employment authority has issued a statement that your business activities are part-time. Whenever possible, your last confirmed tax decision will be used as the basis for adjustment. The income from your business activities according to the tax decision is divided on a monthly level, so if you are a part-time entrepreneur, you should apply for an allowance in one-month periods.

You can read more information on entrepreneurship on our fomepage in the section Entrepreneurship.

You should inform the employment authorities that you are starting business activities. For the first 4 months of business, the employment authority will not assess the full-time or part-time nature of business activities you have started while unemployed. Thus, you have the right to earnings-related allowance for at least 4 months after starting your business activities, if you keep your full-time job search valid with the employment authority. When your business activities have lasted 4 months, the employment authority shall assess whether your self-employment is full-time or part-time employment and provides a labour policy statement to your unemployment fund.

If you are starting a part-time entrepreneurship and you have income during the first 4 months, you may receive an adjusted earnings-related allowance. The income that you are making in your business activity will be adjusted to your earnings-related allowance. At the beginning of your business activities, you should report the income for the first 6 months using a monthly bookkeeping account that shows the business income and expenses. When the business activities have continued for at least 6 months, the average of the reported 6 months is used as the basis for calculating the adjusted earnings-related allowance for the following 6 months. After this, the average from 12 months’ bookkeeping is used. Later, your income from part-time business activities will be adjusted on the basis of tax decisions.

Whenever possible, your last confirmed tax decision will be used as the basis for adjustment. The income from your business activities according to the tax decision is divided on a monthly level, so if you are a part-time entrepreneur, you should apply for an allowance in one-month periods.

Fill in an application in Openetti and enter in the application 1 hour on the date on which the invoicing service fee is paid to you.

You may be eligible for an extended earnings-related allowance period after the 500-day maximum payment period in the following circumstances:

Extended allowance for people born between 1957–1960

If you were born between 1957 and 1960 and turn 61 before exhausting your 500-day maximum payment period, you are entitled to an extended earnings-related allowance period on top of the 500 days until the end of the calendar month in which you turn 65. You must also have been working for at least five years during the past 20 years.

Extended allowance for people born in 1961 – 1962

If you were born 1961 – 1962 and turn62 before exhausting your 500-day maximum payment period, you are entitled to an extended earnings-related allowance period on top of the 500 days until the end of the calendar month in which you turn 65. You must also have been working for at least five years during the past 20 years.

Extended allowance for people born in 1963

If you were born 1963 and turn 63 before exhausting your 500-day maximum payment period, you are entitled to an extended earnings-related allowance period on top of the 500 days until the end of the calendar month in which you turn 65. You must also have been working for at least five years during the past 20 years.

Extended allowance for people born in 1964

If you were born 1964 and turn 64 before exhausting your 500-day maximum payment period, you are entitled to an extended earnings-related allowance period on top of the 500 days until the end of the calendar month in which you turn 65. You must also have been working for at least five years during the past 20 years.

The right to extended allowance is gradually being abolished.

You do not need to separately apply for an extended allowance period;
the unemployment fund will automatically check your eligibility in
connection with processing your application when you have reached the
500-day maximum payment period. You can send your application according
to your normal application rhythm as before.

If you have received an extended earnings-related allowance, ask the unemployment fund for a certificate on the additional allowance days paid. We can provide this as soon as we have paid you an allowance for at least one day in the month preceding the start of your pension. For example, if you apply for a pension from 1 October, we can issue the certificate after having paid you an allowance in September.

If you have not received an extended allowance, you can apply for an allowance normally up to the end of the month preceding the start of your pension and inform us on the application from which date you will be applying for a pension. Send your pension application to the pension company in advance. They can provide you further instructions regarding your pension.

Mobility allowance is only simultaneously paid for one employment relationship and training related to it.

The travelling time is calculated from your home address to the address of your workplace. Time spent on changing means of transport is also taken into account, including any waiting times for connecting transport. Any waiting times due to public transport schedules before or after your work shift are also included in the travelling time. However, deviations from the fastest route are not taken into considerations. For example, the time that it takes to take a child to day care is not counted into the travelling time.

To start with the travelling time is calculated using the fastest possible public transport connection. If you have a car at your disposal, the travelling time is calculated based on the use of the car if commuting by car is even faster than commuting by public transportation. So if the commute based on using your car means that you have the right to receive mobility allowance, then you can decide to use public transportation or even carpool instead of you own car. 

If the distance between your original home address and your new workplace entitles you to mobility allowance, you can receive the allowance even if you move closer to your workplace before your employment begins. However, the move must be related to accepting a job. This also applies to moving because of work-related training.

If the preconditions for receiving mobility allowance are met, the allowance can be first paid on the basis of the training, and its payment may be continued after the training on the basis of the employment relationship. The total duration of the allowance period is 60 days from the start of training. 

Mobility allowance from the Unemployment Fund is only for members who start at a new job. The employment authority, however, can reimburse travel expenses if you attend a job interview, for example. Please contact the employment authority to get more information about reimbursements by the employment authority.

The duration of the mobility allowance period depends on on the duration of the employment relationship. The allowance period is 30 days, if  your employment lasts at least 2 months, 45 days, if your employment lasts at least 3 months and 60 days, if your employment lasts at least 4 months.

The changes will only take effect with a delay so they are not updated immediately in Personal information.

The applications are updated in the system in automatic runs executed
four times a day. This is why the application may not be displayed as
having arrived immediately after you have sent it. If you receive a form
identifier (such as archive id: 123456) when submitting the form,  your application
was sent successfully to the system. This also applies to individual electronic attachments that you have sent using the ‘Send attachments ‘  function.

The applications are updated in the system in automatic runs executed few times a day. This is why the application may not be displayed as having arrived immediately after you have sent it but there may be a delay. If you receive a form identifier (such as archive id: 123456) when submitting the form, the application was sent successfully to the system. This also applies to individual electronic attachments that you have sent using the function Application attachments. You can see the documents that you have sent next day the latest. 

You can see the submitted applications and the attachments through the e-service Openetti (from 26.4.2018). Paper applications sent by post will not be found in Openetti. Applications are visible in the service for 12 months from the date of their submission (starting from 26.4.2018 at most).

We primarily send additional information requests throught the Openetti messaging function and notify you via SMS when an additional information request has been sent to Openetti. Please ensure that you have provided the employment fund with the correct phone number so that you receive the notification about the additional information request.

Please inform us about the problem by sending a message to us: asiakaspalvelu@opetusjatiede.fi. Inform your name and date of birth in your message.

If you have previously filled out an application in Openetti and saved a draft, there can be problems when you return to fill up application again. In these situations, correct the dates in the application.

For example, you have saved the draft 26.02.25. The application period is one calendar month and the days are filled until 26.02.25. When you try to send application for the February, application is submitted in accordance with the draft. The system does not correct the application period, you must change the dates until 28.02.25.

You can access the calendar section of the application period by clicking the Edit button in the upper-right corner of Application period information. You can first select your application period.

The other option is delete the draft. If necessary, the draft can be cleared by selecting disable draft saving. Openetti suggest an application period for the correct time. For a month, if this is the application period.

We have noticed that recent updates of some antivirus programs have been updated in a way that blocks logging into Openetti. However, our Openetti service continues to be a trustworthy website. You can adjust your antivirus settings to allow access to Openetti by setting our website as a trusted site.

Clearing the browser’s cookies and cache may also resolve the login problem.

The maximum size of the file attachments is 10 MB, which cannot be exceeded. When scanning documents on your computer, note that they must be saved in .pdf-, .jpg-, .jpeg-, .png-, .gif- or .tiff  format. You should also check the settings of your scanner. You do not need to use photograph quality resolution or colours for scanning documents. We recommend that you select black-and-white document/text as the source material for scanning. If you scan the source material using the option ‘text’ (black-and-white file), this will reduce the file size and allow you to add several attachments to your application.

The size of an individual file will increase if you scan several pages, such as several pay slips, into one file. You can try splitting the documents into two or more files.

To use printable forms, you need the Adobe Reader program. You can download the latest version for free from Adobe’s website.

This may be avoided by updating your browser and Adobe Reader to the latest versions.

If you have selected that you have been employed, the application form must contain the hours you worked. You can not mark zero hours. If you are working full-time and weekends is your free time, choose ”Unemloyed”. If you are working also on weekends, put the correct working hours. For example, if you have a part-time job on the weekends.

If you don´t want to mark unemployed on the weekends, follow the instructions below. You can access the calendar section of the application period by clicking the Edit button in the upper-right corner of Information for the application period. First, you have to select what your main activity has been during the application period. In addition to this, you can select several other options for the application period. You can choose ” Employed”. Also choose ”Other reason, what”. You can write here: Free.  When you go futher, this option will be included and you can choose this option for the weekends.

Always report a reason for breaks in the application. The system will not allow you to submit an application without an explanation for the missed time. The time between your applications has to be complete.  Select reason for break from the drop-down menu and also put the correct dates.

Example: Your last application was for the August. Now you are making an application for the Chistmas break. The system directs you to also fill the section: Report a reason for break between the applications.

Follow the instructions below:

1. Press Apply for earnings-related allowance from Openetti’s front page.

2. Change the dates, if necessary (for example 22.12.2024-6.1.2025)

3. Select what your main activity has been during the application period. Select Unemployed.

4. You are applying for a period that is under 4 weeks, please select one reason: Full-time employment for more than two weeks.

5. Starting from: put 07.01.2025 (if you start a full-time work)

6. Report a reason for break between the applications, choose Employed and mark dates 12.08.24 to 21.12.24.

7. Please answer the Pay day -question.

This is an informative notification of the system. This does not prevent your application from being sent. Please continue to fill application in a normal way. If you have not yet registered as a jobseeker, you should register as soon as possible.

You can try to send application only. After that, send the attachements separately using  Send attachements -function. The files need to be in .pdf, .tif, .png or .jpg file format. File name cannot contain  any special characters.

Please check the forms and have you answered all required fields. Usually the programme will   notify you of any missing information in a message appearing on the page. An incomplete application cannot be submitted. You can also try to switch browser.

System also saves the draft automatically.  Sometimes the draft ”gets stuck” and the only way to go futher, is to delete the draft and to start all over again. Deleting the draft can be done by choosing x disable draft saving from the top right of the page. After this we recommend unchecking this option again so that the new drafts continue to be saved. By doing this, the possibly stuck draft will be deleted and applying should work again as normal.

If you still have problems with the application, please contact our customer service. You can send email and ask for guidance : asiakaspalvelu@opetusjatiede.fi.