Amount and payment of allowance

The daily allowance consists of the following components

• basic component, which is 37,21 euros per day (from 1.1.2023 onwards).
• earnings-related component, which depends on your salary. 

No index increase will be made during the years 2024 – 2027, so the amount of basic component will remain the same as in 2023.

The increased component will no longer be paid for services starting on or after 1 January 2025. If the service begins before the end of the year, the increased component will be paid as before until the end of the service, but only for a maximum of 200 days in total. If the service is organized in separate periods that are not consecutive, the increased earnings component will no longer be paid for service periods starting on or after 1 January 2025. 

The amount of the increased earnings-related component depends on the salary which your daily allowance is based on. You can estimate the amount of the increased earnings-related allowance by using the allowance calculator at eService.

Employment promoting services are e.g.

integration training for immigrants.

labour market training

independent study

job search training

work experience placement

When you participate in employment promoting services you can receive tax free compensation for expenses. Compensation is paid for all employment promoting services except independent study.

Compensation for expenses is 9 euros per day, and it is paid for a maximum of 5 days a week.

The compensation for expenses is paid at an increased rate if you participate in employment promoting measures outside your commuting area. The increased rate can also be paid if the services are organised within your commuting area but outside your home municipality, and you must pay for accommodation.
The increased rate of the compensation is 18 euros per day.

The amount of the daily allowance is calculated based on the average salary from the period during which the work requirement was fulfilled. If you haven’t been working continuously, read more about fulfilling the work requirement.

The average daily wage is calculated by dividing the earnings considered in the work requirement by the number of notional working days within that period. When calculating the daily wage, it is assumed that one full month of work requirement includes 21.5 notional working days. These working days are also referred to as the divisor of the daily wage. When the work requirement is fully fulfilled after 1 September 2024, and it has been accumulated from complete months, the divisor for the 12-month work requirement in a standard situation is 12 x 21.5, which equals 258. The divisor for a half-month of work requirement is also 21.5. Therefore, if the work requirement has been accumulated, for example, from two half-months and 11 full months, the divisor in a standard situation would be 13 x 21.5, equaling 279.5.

The monthly salary on which the daily allowance is based is obtained by multiplying the average daily wage by 21.5. If earnings from the period before 2 September 2024 are included in the work requirement, the divisor for the daily wage is 5 for each calendar week contributing to the work requirement.
If you have been absent from work, for example due to disability, and your salary has been reduced as a result, unpaid days can be deducted from the divisor. In certain situations, days can also be deducted from the divisor when a long-term employment contract begins or ends. 

When calculating the daily allowance only established, work-based income is taken into account (e.g. basic salary, annual leave pay, shift work allowances). Holiday compensation (lomakorvaus) is not taken into account. Also a percentage reduction based on social security contributions (TyEL-vähennys) is made. The deduction is 4,40% in 2023 and 3,76 % in 2024.

Exception in the calculation

Partial pension

If you have received a partial invalidity pension or a part-time pension, the salary which your daily allowance is based on, will be calculated from the salary of the period before the star of the pension, even if the work requirement was met during the pension.

Alternation leave or partial care leave

If you have been on a job alternation leave or partial child-care leave, and you have not fully met the work requirement again after the leave ended, the salary on which your daily allowance is based will be determined by your salary before the start of the leave. 

If your work requirement includes earnings that were earned and paid after September 1, 2024, you will be subject to the graduated reduction of your daily allowance level. This means that your daily allowance level will gradually decrease.

The daily allowance is paid in full for the first 40 days of unemployment after the work requirement has been fulfilled. After that, the benefit amount decreases to 80% of the original full daily allowance. Additionally, the benefit is reduced again after a total of 170 days of unemployment, at which point the daily allowance drops to 75% of the original amount. 40 days corresponds to about two months, and 170 days to about eight months.

You can use the daily allowance calculator to estimate your daily allowance amount after the reductions.

Here are some examples of the impact of the graduated reduction on different levels of daily allowance.

Salary before unemployment (€ / month)	Full earnings-related daily allowance (€ / month)	Earnings-related daily allowance after 40 payment days (€ / month)	Earnings-related daily allowance after 170 payment days (€ / month)
2000	1306	1045	980
2500	1523	1218	1142
3000	1739	1391	1304
3500	1956	1565	1467

If you receive salary or social benefits that are taken into account in your daily allowance (i.e. you therefore receive an adjusted or reduced daily allowance), the graduated reduction will lower the full daily allowance on which the adjustment or reduction is based on. Therefore, the reduction does not directly decrease, for example, the adjusted daily allowance, but instead affects the full earnings-related daily allowance from which the adjusted daily allowance is calculated. However, the reduced daily allowance has a lower limit which means that earnings-related daily allowance is always paid at least to the level of the basic daily allowance.

If the earnings-related daily allowance is paid as adjusted, the number of unemployment days in the graduated reduction calculator accumulates more slowly than if the earnings-related daily allowance were paid as a full unemployment daily allowance. The adjusted daily allowance is converted, based on its amount, into full daily allowance days that accumulate towards the 40 and 170-day graduated reduction counts. 

The amount of the daily allowance is recalculated if you fulfill the work requirement again 

• before it has been possible to pay a daily allowance for any day after the previous work requirement was fulfilled or
• within a year from when the daily allowance began to be paid, but the amount has not been recalculated when the work requirement was last fulfilled (this exception applies only if the work requirement was fulfilled before September 2, 2024), or
• more than one year after the start of the daily allowance

If you fulfil the work requirement again after you have reached the age of 58, your daily allowance will only be changes if it is higher than before. In other words, the amount of the daily allowance for those over the age of 58 is not reduced.

There is also a protection provision in the Unemployment Security Act for those aged 58 or older, which is in effect until September 1, 2024. If you fulfill the work requirement again based on a period before September 2, 2024, and you have already turned 58, your daily allowance will only be recalculated if the new salary is higher than the previous one. In other words, for those aged 58 or older, the amount of the daily allowance will not be reduced from the previous level. This exception no longer applies if your work requirement includes at least 465 euros in earnings from after September 1, 2024. In that case, you are also subject to the 12-month work requirement.