According to Open Unemployment Fund A-kassa’s statistics, the number of earnings-related allowance recipients is on a clear downward trajectory. In April, the number of daily allowance recipients stood at 28,986, a drop of more than 16% from April 2024. The number of laid-off persons has decreased even faster, declining by over 30% from a year ago. There is no significant change in the number of the fully unemployed, standing at 13,543 in April 2025 as opposed to 13,943 a year earlier.
Benefit payment amounts, on the other hand, increased by 2.3 million euros from March to April. However, this spike is explained by calendar dates lining up in a way that caused some beneficiaries to receive two payments instead of one in April. This is why it appears that payment figures are on the rise even as the number of beneficiaries remains unchanged. In fact, payments have actually decreased 11.5% between January and April compared to the same period last year.
Average daily allowance trending down slightly, staggering not yet reflected in statistics
In April 2025, the average daily allowance at A-kassa stood at 75.06 euros, down from 77.49 euros a year earlier.
– While the staggering has started to affect individual members’ benefits, it is not yet reflected in the overall averages of the entire member base. The average daily allowance has decreased slightly. However, the impacts are primarily felt at the individual member level, says Benefit Manager Päivi Äijälä.
– Many A-kassa members had fulfilled their employment condition and started their maximum period before the legislative amendments came into force on September 2, 2024. This meant that their daily allowance was not affected by the staggering. This is why the changes do not affect daily allowance averages to the same extent they have affected individual members, Äijälä clarifies. .
Changes to employment condition have not caused a major spike in rejections
Extension of the employment condition and linking it to euros earned do not seem to have a substantial impact on benefit eligibility among A-kassa members. A total of 311 rejections were issued from January to April 2025 due to an unfulfilled employment condition. A year earlier the number was 354.
There are also no significant changes in the number of applications to municipalities and Kela for social assistance and basic social assistance among A-kassa members when compared to the situation a year earlier.
Earnings-related allowance received by roughly 10% of members
The March statistics published by Kela indicate that income security recipients is down 1% from last year while the number of Kela’s labour market subsidy recipients has increased by 13.1%. Monthly statistics on unemployment security in Finland (in Finnish).
In April 2025, 11.5% of unemployment fund members still received earnings-related allowance, with the figure even exceeding 20% for some partner unions. While the number of earnings-related allowance recipients has decreased by 2.8 percentage points from the previous year, one in every ten A-kassa members continues to receive the allowance..
