Target times for processing benefit applications

• Conscript’s allowance: 2 weeks

• Housing allowance for pensioners: 4 weeks
• General housing allowance: 3 weeks

• Housing allowance for pensioners: 4 weeks
• National pensions: 5 weeks
• Guarantee pension: 5 weeks
• Applications for disability pensions: 11 weeks
• Follow-up applications for rehabilitation subsidy (disability pension awarded for a specified period of time): 7 weeks

Applications for benefit which involve more than one country may take longer to process than the given target or average processing time. This applies to situations where the applicant has received treatment abroad, for example. Read more: Why do applications for benefit which involve more than one country take longer to process?

• Rehabilitation allowance: 3 weeks (after receiving a decision on rehabilitation)
• Rehabilitation allowance for young persons: 5 weeks      
• Rehabilitation determinations: 5 weeks

• Exemption from payment of child support debt: 4 weeks
• Child maintenance allowance: 3 weeks
• Special care allowance: 3 weeks
• Child benefit: 2 weeks
  • Decisions on child benefit for soon to be born babies are made in the second half of the month following their birth
• Child home care and private day care allowance: 2 weeks
• Allowances for parents: 5 weeks
  • However, decisions on allowances for parents can be made at the earliest on the 6th day of the month preceding the start of payment. This is the point at which information needed to determine the allowance becomes available to Kela in the national incomes register
• Maternity grant: 2 weeks
• Compensation for annual leave costs: 5 weeks

• Survivors’ pensions (surviving spouse’s pension or orphan’s pension): 2 weeks

• Assistance with student loan interest: 2 weeks
  • Our decisions on interest assistance applications are based on six-month periods. This means that we can decide on interest assistance applications that concern interest payments due during the first half of the year in June at the earliest, and that we can decide on applications that concern interest payments due during the second half of the year in December at the earliest.
• School transport subsidy: 2 weeks
  • You may be granted the right to purchase subsidised tickets immediately after sending your application. In that case, you can purchase a subsidised ticket before you receive a decision on school transport subsidy. You can check if you have a right to purchase subsidised tickets in OmaKela under Omat etuudet – Koulumatkatuki.
• Student financial aid and student loan compensation: 2 weeks
  • We cannot make a decision on the student loan compensation until the bank has provided information about the amount of your student loan. For degrees completed in the spring term, that information is communicated to us on 10 October at the earliest, and for degrees completed in the autumn term, on 10 March at the earliest.

• Basic unemployment allowance and labour market subsidy:
  • New applications: 4 weeks
  • Follow-up applications: 5 days

• Special care allowance: 3 weeks
• Entitlements to reimbursement for medicine expenses: 3 weeks
• Additional reimbursement for medicines: 3 weeks
• Reimbursements for medical care and travel costs 2 weeks
• Sickness allowances: 3 weeks
• Infectious disease allowance: 3 weeks

Applications for benefit which involve more than one country may take longer to process than the given target or average processing time. This applies to situations where the applicant has received treatment abroad, for example. Read more: Why do applications for benefit which involve more than one country take longer to process?

• Basic social assistance: 7 working days
• How applications for basic social assistance are processed.

• Disability benefits (disability allowance for persons under the age of 16 and disability allowance for persons aged 16 or over; pensioners’ care allowance): 4 weeks

• Interpreter services for the disabled: 3 weeks