In April, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, the Finnish government decided to grant unemployment protection to entrepreneurs whose business has been adversely affected by the closure measures decreed to curb the pandemic. Those grants, which in principle were to end on June 30, have now been extended until the end of 2020.
According to the Finnish Social Security Institution (Kela), entrepreneurs will see their right to labour market subsidies extended, provided that the coronavirus epidemic deprived them of their full-time employment or if they have suffered loss of income.
This support, which consists in 33.66 euros per day (before taxes) is available regardless of the type of business. The total amount is about 724 euros per month, although it may be reduced if the business has not been terminated and the beneficiary has some other income. This benefit can be also applied retroactively within a period of three months.
Review by TE offices
According to Kela, entrepreneurs can have access to this benefit if they have not been re-employed or if their situation has not gone through major changes. The unemployment service (TE office) should contact them in order to review their situation, if necessary.
TE offices will update the information and issue a statement to inform Kela if the conditions to continue receiving this payment after July 1 are still met. This could be done also without contacting the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs who did not previously apply for this support and want to do it now must first register as unemployed jobseekers with TE offices.
Entrepreneurs are permitted to earn up to €500 euros with their business without seeing their unemployment benefits reduced.
Already 32,000 beneficiaries
About 32,600 entrepreneurs received this labor market support in April and May. One third of them were from the Uusimaa region (Helsinki and its metropolitan area) and more than half were over 45 years of age.
According to the Social Security Institution, there were slightly more women than men among the beneficiaries.
By the end of May, Kela had paid almost 35.5 million euros in entrepreneurial labor market support..
