On 21 October, the Finnish Parliament approved the extension of legislative amendments related to the standard entitlement of unemployment security and the commuting requirement of mobility assistance until the end of the year. The amendments were originally scheduled to expire at the end of October.
As a result of the amendment, the standard entitlement of EUR 500 for earned income will be valid when the application period begins no later than 31 December 2020. The standard entitlement of EUR 300 will be applied again for application periods starting on or after 1 January 2021.
Mobility assistance can be obtained for full-time work on the basis of a commute of more than 2 hours when the employment relationship starts no later than 31 December 2020. If the employment relationship starts on 1 January 2021, the commuting requirement of 3 hours will be applied again.
All temporary legislative amendments to unemployment security will now remain in force until the end of the year. More detailed information can be found in the table below.
| Amendment | Valid / applies to |
| The standard entitlement of earnings-related unemployment allowance for earned income is temporarily EUR 500 per month. | Applies to application periods beginning from 1 June to 31 December 2020. |
| Mobility assistance can be obtained for full-time work on the basis of a two-hour return commute. | Applies to employment relationships beginning from 12 June to 31 December 2020. |
| The payment of earnings-related allowance begins on the first day of unemployment without a 5-day waiting period. | Applies to persons whose waiting period starts from 16 March to 31 December 2020. |
| Earnings-related allowance can be obtained after a minimum of three months of work (13 calendar weeks). During work, you must be a member of a fund. * | Applies to persons whose working condition is not otherwise met, whose working condition includes one working week after 1 March 2020 and to whom earnings-related allowance will be paid from 31 December 2020 at the latest. ** |
| The maximum payment period of 300-500 days of earnings-related allowance does not run during a lay-off. | Applies to lay-offs that started on 16 March 2020 or later. In this case, the maximum period does not accrue between 16 March and 30 June 2020. |
| The maximum payment period of 300-500 days of earnings-related allowance does not run (under any circumstances). | The maximum period does not accrue between 1 July and 31 December 2020. |
| An entrepreneur can receive labour market subsidy from Kela when their income from business activities has decreased due to the coronavirus. | Labour market subsidy can be received between 16 March and 31 December 2020. |
| The business activities and studies of a laid-off person are not examined at the TE Office. | Valid from 16 March to 31 December 2020. |
| Interviews with jobseekers at the TE Office are partially abandoned. | Valid from 16 March to 31 December 2020. |
Exceptionally, the right to unemployment security remains in the following situations:
|
Valid from 16 March to 31 December 2020 |
| The TE Office may deviate from the jobseeker’s self-study progress requirement until the end of the year and give additional time for studies when studies are delayed due to the coronavirus. | Valid from 1 August to 31 December 2020. |
* In the case of family members of the entrepreneur, the working condition has been halved to 26 weeks.
** If the maximum payment period for basic unemployment allowance is pending, the 13-week employment condition can only be applied when the working condition includes a working week after 1 July 2020. This is because those transferring from basic unemployment allowance were added to the scope of the amendment by a subsequent amendment.
The compilation of the table was prepared by the Federation of Unemployment Funds in Finland (TYJ)