Update on the coronavirus situation

You can get temporary financial assistance due to an epidemic outbreak if you are in an employment relationship and you have to take unpaid leave of absence from your work because 

• you care for a child
• you arrived in Finland from abroad before 14 May 2020 and were placed in conditions equivalent to quarantine

Temporary financial assistance due to an epidemic outbreak is normally not available during self-isolation because it does not require the person undergoing self-isolation to take a leave of absence from their job. For more information, see this Government press release (valtioneuvosto.fi).

You cannot receive temporary financial assistance due to an epidemic outbreak if you are for instance unemployed or on maternity, paternity or parental leave. Read more about the effects on other benefits.

Self-employed persons are not eligible for financial assistance. However, if you are in paid employment alongside the self-employment activity and you have taken unpaid leave from the paid employment, you may be entitled to financial assistance. If the coronavirus outbreak has had a negative effect on your self-employment activity, read more about temporary unemployment benefits for self-employment persons. 

Certificates needed: Certificate from the employer confirming that you have taken unpaid leave due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

You can receive infectious disease allowance to compensate for the loss of income, if the physician responsible for infectious disease control in the municipality or hospital district has ordered 

• you into isolation or quarantine
• your child aged under 16 years to stay at home to prevent the spreading of an infectious disease.        

You cannot receive infectious disease allowance if you have followed the Government’s recommendation to stay in conditions equivalent to quarantine. However, you may be entitled to temporary financial assistance due to an epidemic outbreak.

The infectious disease allowance is paid to the employer insofar as the employer has paid a wage or salary for the time of absence from work.

Certificates needed: Certificate on quarantine from the physician responsible for infectious disease control in the municipality or hospital district. For persons in an employment relationship, also needed is a certificate from the employer verifying the loss of income, i.e. the wage that you would have earned if you had not been ordered into quarantine or isolation. 

If you have fallen ill and a physician has determined that you are incapable of work, you can apply for sickness allowance. If you are in an employment relationship, your employer will apply for the sickness allowance for the period for which the employer pays you wages. 

If you have fallen ill with a coronavirus infection, you can apply for infectious disease allowance. Please note that an order from the physician responsible for infectious disease control in the municipality or hospital district is needed. 

Certificates needed: You need a medical certificate to qualify for sickness allowance. 

You can apply for unemployment benefits from Kela in the following situations:

You cannot receive earnings-related unemployment allowance from the unemployment fund.

 You are a self-employed person whose work in the company has ended due to the coronavirus epidemic or the income from self-employment is, because of the coronavirus epidemic, less than EUR 1,089.67 per month. 

Certificates needed: Always first register with the TE Services as an unemployed jobseeker.  Unemployment benefits cannot be paid out unless you are registered as an unemployed jobseeker.

You may be entitled to an infectious disease allowance if the physician specialising in infectious diseases in your municipality or hospital district has ordered a child of yours who is under 16 to stay at home in order to prevent the spread of an infectious disease.

Temporary financial assistance on the basis of childcare responsibilities is only available until 13 May 2020.