Illness and disability are two different things. If you have been found unable to work, you must apply for sickness allowance from Kela. Kela pays the sickness allowance after the self-responsibility period. The unemployment fund can pay earnings-related allowance during the period of self-responsibility for sickness allowance.
Short-term illness is not an obstacle to the payment of earnings-related allowance if the illness lasts no more than 10 business days. Saturdays are included to business days, but not public holidays.
If the illness lasts more than 10 days, you must apply for sickness allowance from Kela.
Sickness allowance can be paid after the self-responsibility period for sickness allowance. Earnings-related allowance can be paid from the self-responsibility period for sickness allowance if you received earnings-related allowance immediately before you fell ill. This means that the earnings-related allowance must have been actually paid for the day before the illness. If, for some reason, earnings-related allowance could not be paid for the day before the illness, there is no entitlement to earnings-related allowance at all from the self-responsibility period of sickness allowance.
If you are applying for an earnings-related daily allowance from the A-fund, proceed as follows:
When the self-responsibility period for the sickness allowance has passed and the illness continues, Kela can start paying the sickness allowance.
Read more about sickness allowance on Kela's website
The Unemployment Fund cannot decide on whether you are disabled or not. The decision on incapacity for work is made by Kela or the pension company. Mere sick leave proven by a doctor's certificate does not define you as unfit for work as defined in the Unemployment Security Act.
From the point of view of the Unemployment Security Act, you are only disabled if you receive sickness allowance or partial sickness allowance according to the Health Insurance Act or disability pension or rehabilitation allowance according to the National Pension Act or a benefit paid based on total incapacity under another law.
You cannot receive earnings-related daily allowance if you receive the above-mentioned benefits or your employer pays you sick pay based on full-time work.
With certain prerequisites, you may be eligible to receive an unemployment benefit if you have exhausted the full 300 days of Kela’s sickness allowance, your incapacity for work continues and your employment relationship remains valid.
If you are applying for earnings-related allowance from A-kassa after the maximum period for sickness allowance is exhausted and your employment relationship is still valid, do the following:
If you are granted full disability pension, the fund shall recover any unemployment benefits paid for the same period. If you are granted partial disability pension, we shall deduct it from your daily allowance.
If the pension insurance company or Kela rejects your disability pension application and your employment relationship remains valid, earnings-related allowance may be paid out up until the date the rejection decision enters into force.
Decision on disability pension enters into force when the appeal period expires without you having made an appeal. In principle, decisions on disability pension have the same appeal periods as employment security decisions (3- or 7-day notification period + 30-day appeal period).
If you apply for revision of a rejection decision and your employment relationship remains valid, earnings-related allowance may continue to be paid out at most until the appeal body (Pension Appeal Board or The Insurance Court) has made their decision and it has entered into force.
If your employment relationship has ended, earnings-related allowance payouts can continue after the rejection decision on disability pension has entered into force. We need a statement from the TE Office confirming your unemployment and registration as a jobseeker.
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