Restrictions
Entitlement to earnings-related allowance requires fulfilling various conditions and obligations. This fulfilment is verified by two separate entities.
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Restrictions
Entitlement to earnings-related allowance requires fulfilling various conditions and obligations. This fulfilment is verified by two separate entities.
An unemployment fund examines whether the applicant fulfils the conditions for receiving earnings-related allowance and proceeds to pay out the daily allowance.
The employment authority examines matters related to labour market policies, such job search, studying or entrepreneurship. The jobseeker must comply with every obligation set by the employment authority.
Failure to comply with the obligations may result to the applicant losing their entitlement to earnings-related allowance. The unemployment fund may also have to recover previously paid benefits from the applicant.
The entitlement to earnings-related allowance is subject to various restrictions. For instance, age, other benefits, incapacity for work, or the right to salary due to an existing employment relationship may prevent daily allowance payments. Below is a list of the most common restrictions.
Earnings-related allowance is paid to individuals aged 18 and over. The upper age limit for earnings-related allowance is determined by birth year.
If you were born in 1964 or earlier:
- We can pay earnings-related allowance within the maximum payment period or, in case of additional days, until the end of the calendar month during which you turn 65 (or 68 in a lay-off situation).
- In the following situations, earnings-related allowance can be paid until the end of the calendar month during which you turn 68:
- lay-off
- reason comparable to lay-off
- adverse weather conditions
- industrial action that does not impact your own work conditions.
If you were born in 1965 or later:
- Your retirement age for the old-age pension is linked to changes in life expectancy. We can pay earnings-related allowance within the maximum payment period until the end of the calendar month during which you attain the lowest retirement age for the old-age pension.
Determining the retirement age for the old-age pension is regulated in § 11 in the Employees Pensions Act . The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health issues a decree confirming the minimum retirement age for the old-age pension for each age group, with the minimum age determined by the year during which individuals in the age group turn 62. This confirmation takes place no later than 2 months before the start of the calendar year. For instance, for people born in 1965, the minimum retirement age for the old-age pension is confirmed no later than 2 months before the calendar year 2027.
The retirement age for old-age pension linked to life expectancy will be applied for the first time in 2030. You can use the retirement age calculator to get an estimate of your minimum retirement age based on your birth year. For more detailed information on determining the retirement age for the old-age pension, see the website of the Finnish Centre for Pensions.
If you have been laid off, earnings-related allowance can be paid up to the end of the calendar month during which you turn 68.
The period of earnings-related allowance, i.e. the maximum payment period, starts with a waiting period of 7 weekdays, during which no earnings-related allowance is paid. In other words, earnings-related allowance payouts start no earlier than the eighth working day after the start of unemployment or layoff.
A new waiting period is always set when you fulfil the employment condition again and the maximum payment period starts over.
Even though no daily allowance is paid for days included in the waiting period, you must always include them in your application. We count the days included in the waiting period based on the unemployment days and any hours worked as stated in the application.
Only days during which you are an active jobseeker at Job Market Finland count towards your waiting period.
The length of the waiting period equals seven full workdays,
with a maximum of five days counted towards it per week. In principle, the waiting period consists of weekdays from Monday to Friday. However, a maximum total of five days per calendar week can be counted as waiting period days, unemployment days or working days. The waiting period must be completed over a period of 8 consecutive calendar weeks.
- Each day of full unemployment for which you would be entitled to full earnings-related allowance counts as one waiting period day.
- Time periods for which you are not entitled to daily allowance (such as the periodisation of a financial benefit) are not counted as waiting period days.
If you participate in an employment-promoting service agreed with the employment authority, you receive earnings-related allowance for the entire duration of the service. Consequently, as an exception, you are eligible for daily allowance even for the period that would normally be an unpaid waiting period. This means that your participation in the service counts towards the completion of your waiting period.
Example: Waiting period for the fully unemployed
Your employment ends on Monday. You register as a jobseeker on Tuesday. In this case, the days counted towards the waiting period are Tuesday to Friday (4 days) during that same week and Monday to Wednesday (3 days) the following week. The weekend does not count towards the waiting period. The waiting period is therefore fulfilled on the Wednesday of that week, and earnings-related allowance payments start on Thursday.
For a part-time worker, progress towards the waiting period is calculated by hours of unemployment, which must be accumulated to an equivalent of seven full workdays.
Full working hours are stated in the collective agreement applied to the industry, which also specifies weekly and daily maximum working hours. If no collective agreement applies to your industry, the maximum working hours are set at 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day, as stipulated in the Finnish Working Time Act.
Example: If your industry is covered by a collective agreement where maximum working hours are 37.5 hours per week and 7.5 hours per day, your hours of unemployment must total the equivalent of seven full working days, i.e. 7.5 h * 7 = 52.5 h.
We calculate the unemployment hours that count towards the waiting period by deducting your actual working hours from the maximum working hours stipulated for the industry.
The waiting period is initially determined per week. It is determined day to day starting from the onset of the week during which your waiting period is completed.
For the waiting period to be set for a person working part-time, it first must be checked that the working hours paid during the application’s adjustment period do not amount to more than 80% of the maximum working hours stipulated for the industry. If the working time limit is exceeded, no progress towards completing the waiting period can be made.
It is, however, possible to make progress towards completing the waiting period even if the salary used for the calculation of the adjustment is high enough to reduce the daily allowance for the adjustment period to zero, provided that the working hours paid during the adjustment period are within the working time limit.
Days are not counted towards your waiting period in the following situations, for instance:
- You are not unemployed.
- You are not registered as a jobseeker.
- You are on a suspension period. A suspension period is a non-compensable period imposed on you by the employment authority, during which you are ineligible for daily allowance.
- You are not available on the job market.
- You study full time.
- You are employed full time via entrepreneurial activities for a continuous period of no more than two weeks.
- You receive salary for your period of notice or annual leave, earned from full-time employment.
- You receive a benefit that prevents the payment of the earnings-related daily allowance.
- Your employer pays you full salary or compensation for a midweek holiday.
- You do not receive earnings-related allowance due to periodisation because you have been paid:
- a financial benefit
- cash compensation from a working time account
- profit for selling company assets
- You are not eligible for adjusted daily allowance because the working hours for which you were paid during the adjustment period exceeded 80% of the maximum working hours stipulated for your industry.
The employment official issues a statement on the suspension period that is binding to the unemployment fund, and there is no entitlement to a daily allowance during the suspension period.
If you have resigned from your job without a valid reason or caused the employment to end, the employment official will set an unpaid time period, i.e., a suspension period.
An exception to this rule is employment-promoting services agreed with the employment official, for which the daily allowance is paid concurrently with the suspension period.
A suspension period is different from a seven-day waiting period.
Holiday compensation affects the right to earnings-related unemployment allowance in such a way that annual holidays not taken by the end of the employment relationship will postpone the start of earnings-related unemployment allowance payments by as many days as the holiday compensation paid corresponds to the average salary for the number of working days. This is called the periodisation of holiday compensation.
The periodisation applies to full-time employment that has lasted more than two weeks and has ended. Holiday compensation paid for part-time employment are not periodised but are adjusted when the daily allowance is paid.
For example, if you are paid a holiday compensation equivalent to a month’s wages when your employment ends, it is possible to start accruing the waiting period and pay the unemployment benefit only when this paid period ends, in this case, after about a month.
Example of periodization:
- The person’s full-time employment, which lasted more than two weeks, has ended on December 31, 2025. At the end of his employment, he has been paid 1,500 euros in holiday compensation for annual leave that he has not taken.
- His average monthly salary has been 3,000 euros and his daily salary 3,000 euros: 21.5 days = 139.53 euros/day.
- The holiday compensation is divided by the average daily wage of 1,500 euros: 139.53 euros/day = 10 days.
- 10 payable days, i.e., two weeks from the end of the employment relationship, are used for the periodisation of holiday compensation.
- Earnings-related daily allowance cannot be paid from 1 February to 14 February 2026. After the period, the waiting period is taken into account, which is seven days, i.e. starting on January 15, 2026 and lasting until January25, 2026.
- The payment of the earnings-related daily allowance can therefore start on 26 January 2026.
In order for earnings-related daily allowance to be paid, it must be applied for. The application for earnings-related daily allowance is always filled in retroactively, meaning for a past period. The retroactive application period is 3 months and is counted backwards from the date the application is received. The retroactive period applies to both the first application and continued applications.
You are not entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance paid by the unemployment fund for strike days if
- you have been prevented from working, directly or indirectly, because of industrial action (such as a strike or lockout), and
- a strike or lockout is aimed at influencing the terms of your employment.
Instead, in these situations, you can apply for strike pay from your own trade union or from another trade union that has called the strike.
Have you been laid off during a strike?
If you are laid off, you are entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance for the days your are laid off, provided that
- the lay-off notice has been given to you before the strike warning is issued, and
- the strike date falls on the previously announced lay-off date.
If you are applying for an earnings-related daily allowance for days, you are laid off and taking the above into account, follow these steps:
- Re-activate your job-seeking in the E-services at Job Market Finland, so that you can apply for a daily allowance
- notify the employment authority that you are prevented from working during industrial action by another group of employees or employers (i.e. strike or lockout).
If your working week is shortened because you are laid off, you cannot receive an earnings-related daily allowance for strike days that fall on your working days.
Do you work part-time during a strike?
You cannot receive an earnings-related daily allowance during a strike if you work part-time and have received an adjusted daily allowance from us, because you cannot be on strike part-time.
Was your work interrupted due to industrial action in another industry?
If your work is interrupted due to industrial action in another industry, you may be entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance. You must register with the employment authorities as an unemployed jobseeker.
When your work is prevented due to a strike in another industry that is not aimed at affecting your terms of employment, your employer has an obligation to pay seven days of wages. If the strike that prevents your work lasts longer than seven days, you are entitled to earnings-related unemployment allowance without the seven-day waiting period.
Also in this case, remember to register as a jobseeker at Job Market Finland so that you can apply for the daily allowance. Tell the employment authority that you have been prevented from working due to an industrial action (strike or lockout) by another group of employees or the employer.
You may be entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance if your work is interrupted due to industrial action in another industry.
You are entitled to a daily allowance when
- the strike is not intended to affect your working conditions but
- you are prevented from working due to a strike in another industry.
NB! In this case, your employer has a seven-day obligation to pay wages. After seven days and if the strike that prevents you from working continues, you are entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance without a seven-day waiting period.
Lay-offs come in different forms, which affect whether the earnings-related daily allowance is paid in full or adjusted according to earned income. This, in turn, affects the final amount of daily allowance paid to you.
Types of lay-off:
- Full-time → full earnings-related unemployment allowance for the days of lay-off, unless you also receive income from other work, in which case the allowance is paid as adjusted
- Reduced weekly working time → full earnings-related unemployment allowance for the days of lay-off, unless you also receive income from other work, in which case the allowance is paid as adjusted
- Reduced daily working time → adjusted daily allowance (income from the shortened workdays is taken into account in the adjustment)
- Combination of all the above → adjusted earnings-related allowance
The fund always needs a statement from the TE Office to pay an earnings-related daily allowance for the lay-off. You must register with the TE Office as an unemployed jobseeker no later than on the first day of the lay-off, as earnings-related daily allowances can only be paid when you are registered as a jobseeker.
Mixed lay-off – so, what is that then?
A mixed lay-off refers to a situation where the lay-off is a combination of all the various lay-off options. During a mixed lay-off, the laid off person works both full days and shorter days but is also laid off for full days. If the lay-off includes both shortened daily working hours and full lay-off days, the day when you had no working time at all is entered in the application as an unemployed day. For days with shortened daily working hours, adjusted earnings-related allowance is paid.
The way the lay-off starts affects the choice of adjustment. If the lay-off starts purely as a shortened workday, the adjustment is payment-based, i.e. adjusted at the time the salary income is paid. While an ongoing lay-off may eventually turn into a mixed lay-off, this does not affect the adjustment, which continues to be payment-based until the lay-off ends. If the lay-off starts purely as a shortened workweek and you have other work or engage in entrepreneurial activities during your lay-off period, the adjustment is earnings-based, i.e. determined by the period during which the salary is earned.
Adjusted daily allowance for lay-off period
By definition, ‘adjusted daily allowance’ is an allowance which accounts for salary income earned during a workday that was shortened by lay-off, or for salary income earned during both a shortened workday and a shortened workweek.
Daily allowance for the lay-off period is also adjusted if, during the lay-off, you receive income from part-time or on-call work for another employer or from part-time entrepreneurial activities. The adjustment also takes income from other work or part-time entrepreneurial activities into account.
If you have been laid off from part-time work, this income continues to be adjusted during your lay-off for as long as you receive income from the part-time job during the lay-off. This means that you will receive adjusted daily allowance even for your full-time lay-off period for as long as you are paid a salary for your part-time work.
As an additional prerequisite for receiving adjusted daily allowance for your lay-off period, your working hours are not allowed to exceed 80% of the working hours of a full-time employee. For a shortened workday, your working hours are reviewed for the entire adjustment period, which is either four full calendar weeks or a calendar month, depending on salary periods. For a shortened workweek, working hours are reviewed per calendar week.
Adjusted daily allowance is paid in equal instalments for the duration of the application period for each weekday for which you are entitled to the benefit. Daily allowance is paid for both lay-off days and workdays.
The amount of your adjusted daily allowance is affected by the amount of your daily allowance and your salary income for the lay-off period.
Reasons Comparable to Lay-Off
A reason comparable to a lay-off refers to a situation where the employee’s obligation to work and the employer’s obligation to pay wages are both completely suspended. Such reasons may include, for example:
- A fire at the workplace
- An exceptional natural event
- Another reason beyond the control of either party to the employment relationship.
The application of a reason comparable to a lay-off is also possible in fixed-term employment relationships.
Example: Fire at the workplace:
In the event of a fire, the employer’s obligation to pay wages ends after 14 days. In this case, employees do not need to be formally laid off. Remember to register as an unemployed jobseeker on the Job Market Finland service. You can contact the employment authority even before the lay-off begins. It is advisable to mention to the employment authority that their labour policy statement to the fund should include a note about the reason comparable to a lay-off due to the fire.
After the seven-day waiting period, you will receive earnings-related daily allowance as usual, just like in other lay-off situations.
During the lay-off period, the payment of an earnings-related daily allowance depends on the provisions of the collective agreement.
- If the day is a paid local midweek holiday in your collective agreement, select midweek holiday as the day of the application, otherwise you can mark laid-off.
The employer’s obligation to pay wages for midweek holidays also depends on the collective agreement. You can check the provisions of the collective agreement on midweek holiday compensation, for example, with your trade union.
There can be a maximum of five compensation days in a calendar week. Therefore, earnings-related daily allowance can be paid for a maximum of five days per week. For example, if you are laid off from Monday to Friday (5 days) but receive a midweek holiday compensation for a holiday that falls on Saturday, the fund can only pay you the unemployment allowance for four days.
In the event of a weather barrier, you can apply for a daily allowance from the fund under certain conditions.
The weather barrier under the Unemployment Security Act only applies to the building and forestry industry. In other industries an employer may, if necessary, lay off a person for production and economic reasons.
If work is prevented due to freezing temperatures, those working in the building and forestry industry must have agreed on a frost limit before starting work on the site. A weather barrier is a situation in accordance with a collective agreement in the building or the forestry industry where:
- Work is prevented solely and exclusively due to freezing temperatures
- A certain frost limit has been set in advance for the construction site, below which the work will not be carried out
- According to the collective agreement, the employer is not obliged to pay any wages or other remuneration.
- Earnings-related daily allowance can only be paid for a completely unpaid frost day. If the salary has been paid for example for the waiting period, then no daily allowance can be paid for that day.
- An entire day of weather obstacles can be used to accrue a waiting period or to pay unemployment benefit when the job-seeking is activated at Job Market Finland. Inform the employment authority that it is a weather barrier or frosty day.
- Unpaid frosty days must be specified either in a statement from the employment authority or in a separate certificate from the employer.
In this case, you can apply for daily allowance from the fund, if the employer has not paid wages or other remuneration for the days in question. However, always fill in the application for entire calendar weeks from Monday to Sunday.
In the forest machinery sector or in the sheet metal and industrial insulation sector an employee may be laid off due to a weather barrier. You can also apply for a daily allowance for these days if you are laid off.
If you are applying for daily allowance for the first time in the event of a weather barrier or your employment condition has been met again, the seven-day waiting period will be set normally.
In case of doubt, you should contact either your own trade union or the customer service of the A-fund.