The objective of Finnish social security is to guarantee an adequate basic security in all life situations. Everybody living in Finland is entitled to social benefits and services, including those are not employed.
The State finances basic security benefits, such as child allowance, study grants and labour market support. These can be received by all those living permanently in Finland and who meet the appropriate criteria.
Earnings-related benefits are financed by employers’ and employees’ insurance contributions. Their amount generally depends on your wage. The employer retains 7% of every employee’s wage for compulsory social security payments.
Some social benefits are applicable to everybody living permanently in Finland, others only to those who are employed.
Residence-based benefits
People living permanently in Finland come within the sphere of basic pension cover, sickness insurance benefits and family benefits.
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) pays residence-based social security benefits.
You are generally entitled to Kela’s benefits from the day when you come within the sphere of Finland’s social security cover, which will happen if you move to Finland on a permanent basis. Some benefits, however, are paid only to those who have lived in Finland for a sufficient length of time before the benefits are granted.
Entitlement to social care and health services and to social assistance is based on permanent residence in Finland. Arrangement of these services is the responsibility of the municipalities.
Work-based benefits
Work-based social security consists of earnings-related pensions, earning-related unemployment security and insurance against accident and occupational disease.
The earnings-related pension covers the social assistance of those who have been wage-earning or self-employed when they retire because of work disability or reaching retirement age. Employers are obliged to arrange pension cover for their employees by taking out insurance with a pension insurance company or by establishing pension funds. The level of insurance contributions paid by employers varies in accordance with pension legislation and the size of the company. Employees pay a certain percentage of their wages as insurance contributions.
Self-employed persons take care of their pension insurance themselves by taking out insurance either with an earning-related pensions insurance company or a pension fund, if there is one in their line of business. The State pays that part of self-employed person’s pensions not covered by the insurance contributions.
If the earnings-related pension is very small, Kela will also pay a national pension. If you want to find out in advance whether you are entitled to a national pension, you can ask for an assessment of the amount of your earnings-related pension from the Finnish Centre for Pensions, your own pension institution or at the website www tyoelake.fi
Unemployment security is divided into basic and earnings-related security. You are entitled to a basic allowance if you have not at any time belonged to a pension fund, if you have not been a member of one long enough or if you are no longer entitled to an earnings-related allowance. The basic allowance is paid by Kela, which also pays the labour market support.
If you are a member of an unemployment fund, you can, if you become unemployed, obtain earnings-related unemployment allowance that is higher than the basic allowance. Unemployment security proportioned to earnings is generally handled by the unemployment funds run by the trade unions, membership of which is optional for employees. You can find further information about trade unions on the Infopankki website.
Further information:
Benefits handled by Kela
Social security payments
Social services (Infopankki)
Information about earnings-related pensions (www.etk.fi or www.tyoelake.fi)
Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions (TVL)
Information about Finland’s local government
See also general information for immigrants in different languages on the Infopankki website