Part-time and occasional employment

1. Register with the TE Office as an unemployed jobseeker

Notify the TE Office if you have started a part-time job, a business or are doing occasional work.

You can apply for an adjusted daily allowance as well as an earnings-related daily allowance in other ways.

2. Fill in the earnings-related daily allowance application in the A-fund's eServices

Apply online for an earnings-related unemployment allowance in our eService.

• Fill in the application according to the salary period for the work, that is, in periods of four calendar weeks or calendar months.
• If you have already applied for a daily allowance before, continue applying in the same intervals. We will change the application period if necessary.

Let us know in your application:

• of all employment relationships which are valid during the application period or if an employment relationship is missing information
  • if the employment relationship shows in the Incomes Register data it does not need to be filled in again
  • if you occasionally do gig work for the same employer, the employment relationship does not need to be filled in for each gig separately
• days and working hours during which you worked. If you worked for more than one employer specify each job in the day’s notes section
  • hours worked as an entrepreneur do not need to be filled in.
• in case the Incomes Register data is not accurate.
  • We retrieve application-related data from the Incomes Register. You will see it when filling in the application. If the data is incomplete, you can provide additional information.

3. Check that you have the necessary attachments to the daily allowance application

Attach the following to your application:

• A copy of your employment contract after you started working.
• You do not need to send a payslip; we will receive your salary data directly from the Incomes Register. However, if the Incomes Register data is incomplete, we will ask you, for example, for a payslip.
• If, on the other hand, you receive income from business activities during the application period, please provide us with a salary statement.

You can send an application even if all attachments are not yet available. Send them to us as soon as you receive them.

4. Send the application and its attachments at the end of the application period

Send the application and its attachments via eService. You can submit the application at the end of the application period

You can send a paper application form to:

Avoin työttömyyskassa

PL 116

00531 Helsinki

Remember that the application must have been received by us no later than three months from the first day of the application period.

5. Send the requested additional explanations and missing attachments

Our processor will contact you if we need more information in order to process your application. Please submit any missing attachments or additional clarifications we have requested through our eServices.

6. Notify of any changes

Remember to notify us of any changes affecting your entitlement to daily allowance and any changes in your personal and contact information through eServices.

Changes affecting the daily allowance

Notify us promptly of any changes affecting your entitlement to daily allowance and the payment of daily allowance in your situation. You should also keep your information up-to-date for the processing of your application. You can report changes through eServices, or by post. You can also provide some of the information by calling our service number.

Child home care allowance

If you or your spouse are paid child home care allowance, please indicate this in the application. If your spouse receives child home care allowance, include more detailed information on your spouse's possible employment and studies and on the person caring for the child. You should also notify us of any changes in child home care allowance or the discontinuation of the allowance. Decisions on child home care allowance do not need to be sent to us.

End of employment

If your employment ends, notify us of this in your daily allowance application and to the TE Office.

End of unemployment

Please notify us in your application if you no longer apply for daily allowance in the future. If you start full-time employment lasting more than two weeks, notify the TE Office. Also notify us of the start of employment with your latest daily allowance application.

Old-age pension or other benefits

If you retire on an old-age pension or have been granted another benefit that prevents you from receiving the daily allowance, please notify us at the latest in connection with your last application for a daily allowance. If you wish, you can retire on an old-age pension already after the age of 62, if you have been paid a daily allowance for additional days.

You will need a certificate for the pension company from the fund about the additional days paid. Ask for a certificate when you are applying for a daily allowance for the month before your pension. We cannot write the certificate earlier, because the pension company needs information about the additional days of the month preceding the pension.

Partial disability pension

Send the decision on granting the pension to us either through eServices or by post. You do not need to send a new decision annually on the size of the pension resulting from indexation. The data is submitted to us directly from the Incomes Register. If you receive a partial early old-age pension, the decision on granting the pension does not need to be sent to us. A partial early old-age pension does not affect the payment of an earnings-related daily allowance.

Illness

If you fall ill and your illness lasts more than ten days, you can claim sickness allowance from Kela. Report your illness via an application. Also indicate on the application whether you have claimed sickness allowance from Kela. The waiting period for qualifying for sickness allowance is the first day of illness plus the following nine days (including Saturdays). In the event of an accident or the same illness within 30 days, the waiting period is one day.

We can pay an earnings-related daily allowance for the waiting period of the sickness allowance if you have received unemployment benefit just before the illness. Read more about falling ill during unemployment here.

Changes in personal information

Account number

You can provide a new account number in eServices, notify it in your application or send it in writing by post. You cannot provide a new account number over the phone.

Information on children

Please inform us of the dates of birth of your dependent children under the age of 18 for which you are applying for a child increase. You can receive a child increase retroactively for a maximum of three months. For a child under the age of 18 living in the same household (of your cohabiting partner or spouse), you are entitled to a child increase from the date on which you move. If you separate, please notify us without delay. You are entitled to a child increase for your own dependent child until the child reaches the age of 18.

Contact details

You can notify us of a change of address or a new phone number in eServices, by entering the information in the additional information section of the follow-up application or by calling the service number.

You can receive an adjusted daily allowance if:

• You work part-time and your working hours are no more than 80% of the working time of full-time employment
• Your daily working hours have been reduced due to lay-offs
• You are in full-time employment for up to two weeks
• You are a part-time entrepreneur or self-employed
• You are a full-time entrepreneur for up to two weeks

Information on the amount of adjusted daily allowance can be found in the Amount of the earnings-related daily allowance section of Earnings-related daily allowance.

Distribution of adjusted earnings-related allowance over several adjustment periods

You can receive an adjusted daily allowance if your working hours do not exceed 80 % of the working time in full-time employment:

• The hours worked in part-time or full-time employment lasting no more than two weeks during the application period are compared with the hours of full-time employment. Depending on the pay cycle, the hours paid are compared with the working hours of full-time employment of four calendar weeks or calendar months.
• The actual working hours when working a shortened working day due to a lay-off are compared with the hours of full-time employment per calendar week.
• The hours worked in entrepreneurship are irrelevant and such hours do not need to be reported.

Working hours are taken into account based on the time of payment of wages.

Example You start working part-time in July. Your salary will be paid to you on 15 August 2022. The working time of a full-time employee in the sector is 40 hours per week. 80% of the maximum working time in the sector is 137.60 hours in a calendar month. You worked 140 hours in July, meaning you have exceeded your working hours. Your August application for the period from 1–31 August 2022 will be rejected based on the hours worked in July. For the July application, you will be paid a full daily allowance if you have not received any wage income during July.

NB!

You will receive a full daily allowance for unemployed days if

• Your weekly working hours have been reduced due to a lay-off.

You will receive an adjusted daily allowance if

• Your weekly working hours have been shortened due to a lay-off and you receive income from part-time work, full-time work lasting less than two weeks, or activities as an entrepreneur.

The total salary you receive for work and the adjusted daily allowance may not exceed the salary on which the daily allowance is based, if the income to be adjusted exceeds the exempt amount during the application period.

• If the income to be adjusted during the application period is less than the exempt amount, the earned income does not affect the daily allowance.
• If the total income would exceed the wages on which the daily allowance is based, the daily allowance is paid to the extent that the total income is equal to the wages on which the daily allowance is based.

You can calculate an indicative estimate of the amount of the adjusted daily allowance using the daily allowance calculator.

The amount of the full daily allowance and the adjusted daily allowance affects how the maximum period of time is accrued, when the adjusted daily allowance is paid.

The adjusted daily allowance accrues more slowly the maximum time of earning-related daily allowance of 300–500 days than the days of full daily allowance.

When you receive an adjusted daily allowance, the calculator accumulates days according to the amount paid. When the adjusted daily allowance has been paid corresponding to the full amount of the full daily allowance, one day is accumulated on the calculator.

Example If your full daily allowance is 40 euros per day and your adjusted daily allowance is 33.70 euros per day, the maximum time calculator will accrue days from a four-calendar-week application (20 days x 33.70 euros): 40.00 = 16.85, that is, 17 days. When calculating the maximum payment period, the amount paid as an adjusted daily allowance is converted into full earnings-related allowance days.

The following sources of income are taken into account when calculating the amount of an adjusted earnings-related daily allowance:

• basic wages or salary and associated allowances and reimbursements, such as evening work bonuses, overtime pay, standby and on-call allowances as well as any taxable fringe or employee benefits
• holiday pay and holiday bonuses
• pay for annual leave earned through part-time work
• pay for the notice period, where the unemployment benefits claim is not rejected on the basis of the claimant’s being entitled to pay for the notice period
• performance-based payments, such as commissions, bonuses and profit sharing
• endowment insurance premiums paid for by the employer
• taxable portion of voluntary pension insurance premiums paid for by the employer
• taxable portion of scholarships and grants paid for by the employer
• royalties based on intellectual property rights, with the exception of copyrights
• compensation payments to shop stewards and occupational safety and health representatives as well as individuals involved in collective bargaining
• payments in lieu of wages or salary
• wages or salary payments guaranteed by the pay security system, where these payments would, had they been made by the employer, constitute earnings that are taken into account in the adjustment process
• gratuities
• earnings from self-employment, with the exception of
• net income from forestry within the meaning of the Agricultural Income Tax Act
• earnings component of dividend income
• earnings component of disguised dividends
• cash compensation withdrawn from a working time account
• dividends based on labour input within the meaning of the Income Tax Act
• other comparable income