How to apply for housing allowance for pensioners
- Apply for housing allowance for pensioners online (please note that our e-service is only available in Finnish and Swedish).
- Scan or take a photo of any supporting documents and send them online. Enclose the following with the application:
- details of your housing costs: rental agreement, proof of payment for rent or maintenance charge. You do not have to report these details if your landlord reports the details on the rental agreement electronically to Kela. From the aforementioned landlords (list in Finnish) Kela receives the necessary data electronically.
- details of your own and your spouse's/partner’s income and assets
- When you apply for housing allowance for pensioners for the first time you must always submit an account statement or other certificate on all your accounts and deposits, indicating the balance and interest rate of the account.
- If you receive a pension from abroad, send the decision on the pension to Kela.
- details of any debt and interest on debt.
- Scan or take a photo of supporting documents and send them online (in Finnish and Swedish). You can send supporting documents over the Internet also after you have submitted the application.
- The housing allowance for pensioners should be reviewed if your circumstances change.
- Visit our e-service to see if your application has been decided, how much you will get and when you will be paid. You can also see any possible reminders concerning, for instance, documents missing from your application. A written decision on your application will be sent to you by post.
Alternatively, you can complete and print out an application form for housing allowance for pensioners (AE 1, PDF, in Finnish). Mail your application along with the supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.
Employers will start reporting pay details to the Incomes Register as of 1 January 2019. Kela can use this data when processing claims.
When to apply
Applications for housing allowance for pensioners can be backdated for up to six months.