Sickness allowance

Sickness allowance compensates for loss of income when, due to illness, you are unable to work for less than a year. It can be received by employees, the self-employed, unemployed people and students. Sickness allowance is taxable income and is not granted on the basis of a diagnosis alone — the doctor assesses your ability to work.

Waiting period and duration

• The waiting period is the day you fall ill and the following 9 weekdays (Saturdays also count as weekdays). During this time the employer usually pays sick pay.
• If the same illness begins again within 30 days, the waiting period is only 1 day. There is no waiting period at all if sickness allowance continues directly after partial sickness allowance or rehabilitation allowance. For the self-employed (YEL), the waiting period is only the day of falling ill.
• The duration is a maximum of 300 weekdays, i.e. about a year. If you return to work for at least 30 days, you can still get 50 additional days.

How much you get

The amount is calculated from your annual income (income over the 12 months before your incapacity). An insurance contribution deduction of 9.07 % (2026) is made from the annual income. The allowance is 70 % of one three-hundredth of the annual income up to 28,241 euros (2026), and only 15 % of the part exceeding this. The minimum amount for those on a low income is 31.99 euros per weekday (2026). You can estimate your own amount with Kela's calculator in OmaKela.

How to apply

• Apply within 2 months of the incapacity beginning, in OmaKela. Enclose a medical certificate.
• If the employer pays wages for the sick period, Kela pays the allowance to the employer. You apply yourself for any unpaid period.
• If you are unemployed, keep your jobseeker status valid also when applying for sickness allowance — that way you do not lose your unemployment security if the application is rejected.

Partial sickness allowance and returning to work

If you can do your work part-time without endangering your recovery, partial sickness allowance supports your return to work. It is voluntary and is agreed with your employer.

• Working hours must be reduced to 40–60 % of the hours in full-time work.
• The amount is always half of the sickness allowance.
• The duration is at least 12 and at most 150 weekdays. There is no waiting period if the partial sickness allowance continues directly after sickness allowance.
• You need an A certificate or a B statement. With an A certificate you can usually get partial sickness allowance for at most 60 days, after which a B statement is needed.

Partial sickness allowance can be received even if you have already used up the 300-day maximum of sickness allowance.

Depression, burnout and mental health

Mental health disorders are now the most common reason for long sickness absences and disability pensions, and depression is the most common single illness. The same support — sickness allowance, rehabilitation, rehabilitation subsidy and disability pension — applies to mental health disorders just as to other illnesses. It is worth seeking help in time, because a prolonged absence makes returning to work harder.

Kela's rehabilitative psychotherapy

If a mental health disorder threatens your ability to work or study, you can get rehabilitative psychotherapy supported by Kela. Its aim is to support you in staying in, or returning to, work or study.

• For whom: for 16–67-year-olds whose ability to work or study is threatened by a diagnosed mental health disorder (for example depression or anxiety).
• Requirements: at least 3 months of appropriate treatment after the diagnosis, and a psychiatrist's statement B assessing the need for rehabilitation.
• Duration: granted one year at a time, for a total of at most 3 years (at most 80 sessions a year, 200 in total).
• Cost: Kela reimburses part of the session price (for example 57.60 euros per session in individual therapy), and the rest is your own share. Apply in OmaKela and enclose the psychiatrist's statement B. The therapist must be approved by Kela.

Rehabilitative psychotherapy is not intended for acute crises. More quickly available are the public health service's mental health services, short-term therapy and occupational healthcare. If the situation is acute or your thoughts turn dark, call MIELI's Crisis Helpline in English on 09 2525 0116 (in Finnish around the clock on 09 2525 0111) — there you will be listened to in confidence.

Vocational rehabilitation — the first option

Before a disability pension it is always examined whether rehabilitation could help you back to work. Vocational rehabilitation comes before a pension: even if your current work is no longer possible, there are often tasks that your ability to work is sufficient for.

• Your pension provider's vocational rehabilitation can be, for example, a work trial, job coaching or retraining. A condition is that you have earnings of at least 43,028.38 euros (2026) during the five years preceding the rehabilitation.
• The rehabilitation allowance secures your income during rehabilitation. The earnings-related rehabilitation allowance is the same as the disability pension, increased by 33 %.
• Kela also arranges vocational and medical rehabilitation and pays a rehabilitation allowance. Ask about the options at occupational healthcare, your own pension provider or Kela.

Rehabilitation subsidy and disability pension

If your ability to work does not return, you can get a rehabilitation subsidy or a disability pension. They are the same benefit: a rehabilitation subsidy is granted for a fixed term when your ability to work is assessed as still able to return, and a disability pension is granted until further notice when recovery is unlikely. Both can be paid by your pension provider and/or Kela.

Full or partial

• A full disability pension or rehabilitation subsidy: your ability to work has, due to illness, decreased by at least 3/5 (60 %).
• A partial disability pension or partial rehabilitation subsidy: your ability to work has decreased by at least 2/5 (40 %). The partial pension is half of the full one, and alongside it you can work part-time.
• The incapacity must be assessed to last at least a year. Your ability to work is assessed in relation to all work you can reasonably be expected to do — not only your own profession. For a person over 60 with a long career, it is assessed in relation to their own work.

How much

The earnings-related pension consists of the pension accrued before the incapacity and of the so-called projected pension component (1.5 % per year from the start of the incapacity to the lowest old-age retirement age). A condition for the projected component is that you have earnings of at least 21,514.19 euros (2026) during the 10 years preceding the incapacity. If the earnings-related pension is small or absent, Kela tops up the minimum level with a national pension and a guarantee pension: the full guarantee pension is 990.90 euros a month and the full national pension 787.07 euros for a person living alone and 702.69 euros in a relationship (2026). A partial disability pension and a partial rehabilitation subsidy are not, however, paid as a national pension.

How to apply

• Get a statement B from your treating doctor. Without it the application cannot be processed. A treatment or rehabilitation plan is also enclosed with the rehabilitation subsidy.
• Apply with the same application to your pension provider and/or Kela — the pension provider forwards the application to Kela, so it does not have to be sent to two places. Do not know your pension provider? Check on tyoelake.fi.
• Apply about 3 months before your sickness allowance ends, so that there is no gap in your income. You usually get a decision in about 3 months.
• Continued rehabilitation subsidy is applied for with a new statement B about 1–2 months before the period ends.

Working while on a pension

Alongside a disability pension you may work within an earnings limit — work does not automatically remove the pension. A temporary law, in force until the end of 2027, has raised the limits.

• On a full pension you may earn at most 40 % of your previous established earnings, but always at least 990.90 euros a month (2026).
• On a partial disability pension the limit is at most 60 % of your previous earnings. In the national pension the limit is always 990.90 euros a month.
• Your personal earnings limit is stated in your pension decision. If you exceed the limit, the pension is suspended for at least 3 months and at most 2 years — it is not reclaimed, but can be left dormant and taken back into use.

Practical tips

• Ask the doctor for the right statement. An A certificate is enough for short sick leave, but partial sickness allowance, rehabilitation and pension usually require a statement B. Tell the doctor which benefit you are applying for.
• Keep your income unbroken. Track how the 300 days of sickness allowance accumulate and start the pension or rehabilitation application in time, about 3 months before the maximum is reached.
• Get a tax card for pension income immediately after the pension decision. Without a pension tax card the withholding rate is 40 %.
• If the application is rejected, there is an appeal instruction in the decision. You can appeal within the deadline — help is available, for example, from the social welfare and patient ombudsman or from organisations' advice services.
• Check other support. The healthcare payment cap and the medicine cap, Kela's housing allowance and social assistance can top up your income.

Important contact details gathered together