Maximum payment period and additional days
Earnings-related allowance is paid for a period of up to 300, 400 or 500 days. Your maximum payment period is determined by the length of your work history and your age. If you are nearing your retirement age and your maximum payment period is full, you may be entitled to additional days of earnings-related allowance.
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Maximum payment period and additional days
Earnings-related allowance is paid for a period of up to 300, 400 or 500 days. This timeframe is referred to as the ‘maximum period’ or ‘maximum payment period.’
Your maximum payment period is determined by the length of your work history and your age.
- If your work history extends to 3 years or less, you receive earnings-related allowance for 300 days.
- If your work history extends to over 3 years, you receive earnings-related allowance for 400 days.
- If you turn 58 before fulfilling your employment condition and you have a work history of 5 or more years in the past 20 years, you receive earnings-related allowance for 500 days.
Daily allowance is paid to the fully unemployed for a maximum of five days per calendar week. Each full day of earnings-related allowance counts as one paid benefit day towards the maximum payment period.
If you work on-call or part-time, the days accumulate slower. If you receive adjusted daily allowance, days accumulate towards the maximum payment period based on the number of full benefit days the payments represent.
Example: Your full daily allowance is 100 euros per day. You receive salary for part-time work, so you are paid adjusted daily allowance of 40 euros per day for 20 days, totalling 800 euros. The amount of adjusted daily allowance corresponds to eight full earnings-related allowance days (€800 / €100/day = 8 days), so 8 days are count towards the maximum payment period.
If a social benefit is deducted from your full daily allowance, the paid days count in full and do not slow down the accumulation of the maximum payment period.
Example: Your full daily allowance is 100 euros per day. You have received 40 euros per day in partial disability pension, which is deducted from your daily allowance. A daily allowance of 60 euros per day, with the social benefit deducted, is paid for a period of 20 days. Therefore, 20 days count towards the maximum payment period.
Days without allowance do not count towards the maximum payment period. Mobility allowance or restructuring protection allowance, if any, does likewise not affect the maximum payment period of earnings-related allowance.
You can check your paid days and your maximum payment period in the eService by using the calculator on the Status Information page. The information is also available on your latest payment notification.
Table: Work history and age condition for different maximum payment periods
Work history | Age | Maximum payment period |
|---|---|---|
Up to 3 years | – | 300 days |
More than 3 years | – | 400 days |
At least 5 years in the past 20 years
| You have turned 58 and fulfilled your employment condition after your birthday
| 500 days |
You have exhausted your maximum payment period when all days within the period have been paid in full. At that time, your entitlement to earnings-related allowance and related payments will cease, and we will issue you a formal decision.
If your unemployment continues after exhausting the maximum payment period, you can apply for Kela’s labour market subsidy.
If you fulfil the employment condition again, you get a new maximum payment period. In other words, the paid days accumulated towards the maximum payment period are reset and start over.
Your maximum payment period does not reset during independent studies or labour market training, even if you fulfil the employment condition again. Your maximum payment period can reset only after your studies have ended. However, your maximum payment period may be reached during voluntary studies or labour market training.
If you have moved on to additional days, a new maximum payment period cannot be set.
If you are nearing your retirement age and your maximum payment period is full, you may be entitled to additional days of earnings-related allowance. In such a case, earnings-related allowance can be extended in the form of additional days up until the end of the calendar month in which you turn 65.
You may be eligible for additional days if you:
– have worked and accrued your pension for at least 5 years in the past 20 years. Additional prerequisites:
you were born in ____, and | you reach the required age of __ before exhausting your maximum period. |
|---|---|
1961-62 | 62 years |
1963 | 63 years |
1964 | 64 years |
Those born in 1965 or later are not entitled to additional days.
The entitlement to additional days will be gradually phased out. The paying of additional days of unemployment allowance will fully end for all age groups in 2030.
You do not have to apply for the additional days separately. We will automatically check whether you are entitled to additional days as you apply for earnings-related allowance and your maximum payment period is about to be fulfilled. You are required to uphold your jobseeker status during the additional days as well.
Staggered daily allowance is paid for additional days.
Recipients of additional days born in 1958–1961 are exceptionally entitled to retire on Kela’s old-age pension at 64
Old-age pension can consist of employment pension, national pension or both. The national pension supplements the employment pension in case the latter is small or has not accrued at all. The employment pension is granted by a pension provider and the national pension by Kela.
The earliest you can receive the employment pension is when you have attained the minimum retirement age for old-age pension for your age group. To check your minimum retirement age for old-age pension, see the retirement age calculator and input your birth year.
Kela’s national pension, however, is available to you without the early retirement deduction already at 64, slightly before your minimum retirement age, provided that you are on additional days and born between 1958 and 1961. The long-term unemployed born in 1962 or later do not have this right.
If you are entitled to Kela’s national pension without the early retirement deduction, you may choose to either retire or remain on your additional days of earnings-related allowance until the end of the month in which you turn 65.
Example: Even though a person on additional days born in 1961 may apply for Kela’s national pension at age 64 at the earliest, they may apply for employment pension from the pension provider only after reaching their lowest retirement age of 64 years and 9 months.
Please contact your pension provider or Kela if you have any questions regarding the old-age pension.
If you are transferring from additional days to Kela’s old-age pension and you need a certificate of the additional days paid out to you, please contact us.
At your request, we will send you a certificate for the additional days, if you have been paid at least one additional day of earnings-related allowance for the month preceding the start of your retirement.
Example: Requesting a certificate of additional days
You plan to retire on April 1st. The earliest you can request the certificate is once we have paid you earnings-related allowance for additional days for March 1st or later.