Parental allowance and partial parental allowance
Links to the content of this page:
- Who can get parental allowance?
- For what period is parental allowance paid?
- Days that can be taken out at the same time
- Giving up parental allowance days for the benefit of someone else
- Partial parental allowance
- Diverse families
- Other situations during parental allowance
- Notify your employer
- After the end of parental leave
In order for you to get parental allowance, you must care for your child at home and not go to work. Taking care of your child means that you are responsible for the day-to-day care and wellbeing of your baby or infant.
- Birthing parent: You can take parental leave and get parental allowance after the end of the pregnancy allowance period. After the birth of your baby, you will receive pregnancy allowance for as many days as there are days left over from the 40 working days that you are entitled to. If the baby is born after the estimated due date, you can get parental allowance immediately after the pregnancy allowance period has ended, even if the baby has not yet been born.
- The baby’s other parent: You can get parental allowance starting from the day your baby is born.
Who can get parental allowance?
You can get parental allowance if you are the parent and the legal guardian of a child. A parent may be the biological or adoptive parent of a child. One or two parents can be eligible for parental allowance.
You can also get parental allowance if you acknowledged parentage at a municipal antenatal clinic before the baby was born, or if you, after the baby is born, acknowledge parentage in a declaration made before the child welfare officer. If so, you can get parental allowance for a maximum of four months starting from the birth of the baby, even if it has not yet been confirmed that you are the other parent of the child.
In certain special situations, parental allowance may be paid to the birthing parent, even if that parent is not caring for the child.
In order to get parental allowance, you must be insured under the Finnish Health Insurance Act.
For what period is parental allowance paid?
Parental allowance for one child is paid for 320 working days. If a child has two parents who are entitled to parental allowance, the days of parental allowance are divided equally between the parents, i.e. they will both be entitled to 160 working days.
Working days are Monday to Saturday, with the exception of midweek holidays. A midweek holiday is a holiday that falls on some other day than a Sunday.
You can get parental allowance flexibly at the times of your preference until the child turns two.
If you are employed, your employer may have the right to restrict your periods of parental leave. If your employer agrees, you can take your parental allowance days in short periods or even as individual days.
Example - Splitting parental leave into shorter periods
Ella and Ari share their parental allowance days equally. Ella first takes 130 working days of parental leave and then returns to work while Ari stays home taking care of their baby. When Ari’s parental leave ends, Ella, as she has agreed with her employer, takes her remaining 30 days of parental leave in the form of individual days weekly before the child turns two. She does a four-day work week and stays home on parental leave one day a week to take care of the child.
Days that can be taken out at the same time
Parents can get allowances for parents at the same time for a maximum of 18 working days if they are taking care of the child, and
- they are both on parental leave
- one of them is on pregnancy leave and the other one on parental leave
- one of them is on parental leave and the other one on partial parental leave.
In certain situations, allowances for parents may also be paid to several persons who are participating in the care of the child. Read more about turning over parental allowance days to someone else.
Example - Days taken out at the same time
Nella’s and Verner’s baby is born when Nella has been on pregnancy leave for 34 working days. Verner has agreed with his employer that he can take his first period of parental leave as soon as the baby is born. He will take three weeks, i.e. a full 18 working days of parental leave together with Nella. Nella can take the remaining 6 days of pregnancy allowance and 12 days of parental allowance at the same time as Verner.
Verner will have 142 and Nella 148 full days of parental allowance to take each on their own.
Giving up parental allowance days for the benefit of someone else
You can give up and turn over a maximum of 63 working days of your quota of 160 parental allowance days to another person who is caring for the child. You can give up and turn over days to
- the child's other parent
- your partner who is not the child’s parent
- the partner of the child's other parent
- another person who is the child's legal guardian.
A partner here refers to a person married to, cohabiting with or living in a registered partnership with the child’s parent.
The birthing parent can turn over parental allowance days in the application she files before or after the birth of her child. The other parent cannot give up parental allowance days until after the child is born. A parent must first give up a certain amount of parental allowance days before another person can claim them.
Read more on giving up parental allowance days for the benefit of someone else.
Partial parental allowance
If you take care of a child part of the day and work part-time at the same time, you can apply for partial parental allowance. Your daily working time must be no more than 5 hours per day.
If you work for longer than that, you are not entitled to parental allowance. The maximum daily working time applies to you if
- you are an employee
- you are self-employed
- you have more than one part-time job either as an employee or as self-employed.
If you are employed, you must have concluded an agreement on part-time work with your employer.
Example of partial parental allowance
Vendela has a baby with her partner Susanna, and they want to take care of the baby in turns. They have concluded an agreement with their employers to work part-time and they will also take days of partial parental leave. Vendela is the birthing parent and Susanna has been declared the second parent.
After the pregnancy leave, Vendela is on parental leave all day on Mondays, which means that she can apply for parental allowance. She works from Tuesday to Thursday up to 5 hours in the mornings and is on partial parental leave in the afternoons taking care of the child. She can apply for partial parental allowance for these days. On Fridays, Vendela works all day, and parental allowance will not be paid. Susanna works from Tuesday to Thursday up to 5 hours in the afternoons and is on partial parental leave in the mornings taking care of the child. She can apply for partial parental allowance for these days. On Fridays, Susanna is on parental leave all day, which means that she can apply for parental allowance. On Mondays, she works all day, and parental allowance will not be paid.
Example of a situation where you cannot get partial parental allowance
Sisu always works all day on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. On other days, he takes care of the baby at home. He is paid salary for the days he is working. For the days when Sisu is not working, he can apply for full parental allowance. Sisu cannot get partial parental allowance, because it is only applicable in situations where the daily working hours do not exceed 5 hours, regardless of how many days a week you work.
When you take one day of partial parental leave, the number of your parental allowance days will decrease by half a day. For example, if you are on partial parental allowance for 10 working days, your days of partial parental allowance will decrease by 5 working days.
Parents can also get partial parental allowance for the same period of time. If both parents take partial parental leave, this does not count against the days you take together with the other parent. The days that the parents take at the same time will, however, affect the days you take together with the other parent if one parent takes a day of leave with full parental allowance and the other parent takes a day of leave with partial parental allowance. The amount of the partial parental allowance is half of the full parental allowance.