Sosiaalipalvelut

Social services bring help to those who need it in different life situations. These pages contain information on social services: family matters, marriage, divorce, pregnancy, services for children and young people and services for the elderly and disabled people.

Kela - the Social Insurance Institution of Finland - provides basic financial social security in different life situations. Kela activities are funded with tax revenue. Permanent residents of Finland are a part of Kela social services. More information is available on the Kela website.

Social services are provided by municipalities, companies and associations.

If your income and benefits are not enough for you to live on, you can apply for income support from the Social Welfare Office. Income support is available to persons or families whose income and resources are not enough to cover necessary costs, such as food, health care or living costs.

 See also Housing Allowance, Financial Support During Unemployment, Pension, Where to Find Funding for Studying?, When You Are Ill, When You Are Pregnant, Children and Young People, Elderly People, Disabled People and Support for Relatives of People Requiring Care.

The Non-Discrimination Act (yhdenvertaisuuslaki) forbids discrimination in recruitment and training. People cannot be discriminated against on the basis of ethnic origin in relation to social services and health care.

Information on the topic in the following languages:

Finnish (pdf)
Swedish (pdf)
English (pdf)
Sami (pdf)
Russian (pdf)
Arabic (pdf)
Somali (pdf)
Spanish (pdf)
French (pdf)

The website of the Ministry of the Interior includes a ‘Home in Finland’ guide, which has information on accommodation, education and social security for immigrants in the following languages:

English
Finnish
Swedish
French
Russian
Serb Croat
Somali
Farsi
Kurdish
Arabic
Albanian
Vietnamese
Dari
Estonian
Basic Language