€31.99

minimum / weekday

9

weekdays of waiting period

300

weekdays maximum

90

day checkpoint

How sickness allowance is calculated

The basis is annual income for the 12 months before the incapacity began, which Kela takes from the Incomes Register. An employee first has a 9.07% insurance contribution deduction removed; a YEL entrepreneur uses their confirmed YEL income as it stands. What remains is multiplied by 70% and divided by 300.

This is where a persistent confusion starts. The 70% is applied after the deduction, so measured against gross pay the replacement is 0.7 × 0.9093, about 64%. That figure holds up to an annual income of 28,899 euros. On anything above it, 0.55 times the excess divided by 300 is subtracted from the allowance — in practice each extra euro of salary adds only about 15 cents to the sickness allowance.

The waiting period: when the money starts

Kela pays nothing for the first days of illness. For an employee the waiting period is the day of falling ill plus the following 9 weekdays, so the allowance starts from the 10th weekday. Saturdays count as weekdays, Sundays do not. On the calendar that works out at just under two weeks.

• ·Employee: day of illness + 9 weekdays. A collective agreement usually obliges the employer to pay wages for that period.
• ·YEL entrepreneur: only the day of illness. Days 2–10 are covered by YEL allowance, after which sickness allowance proper begins.
• ·If the employer pays sick pay, Kela pays the allowance for that period to the employer.
• ·No new waiting period applies if the incapacity continues immediately after a previous benefit period.
• ·Apply within two months of the incapacity starting.

Duration and three checkpoints

Sickness allowance is paid for the same illness for at most 300 weekdays, roughly a year. The maximum is not the only obstacle: there are three points along the way where payment can stop if the paperwork has not arrived in time.

• ·90 days: the employer and occupational health service work out the options for returning to work, and a statement from occupational health must reach Kela. Without it, Kela can suspend payment.
• ·150 days: occupational health assesses the options again, and another statement is needed.
• ·230 days: the same assessment for the third time. At this stage it is worth looking into rehabilitation and disability pension too.
• ·300 days: the maximum is reached. Payment continues to the end of the month in which the 300th day would fall.

Partial sickness allowance: half the work, half the allowance

If you can manage part of your job, partial sickness allowance is an option. It is half the full allowance, and the condition is that working hours drop to 40–60% of full time. The arrangement has to be agreed with the employer for at least 12 weekdays, and it can be paid for at most 150 weekdays over two years.

Half an allowance plus half a salary usually adds up to more than a full allowance alone. Partial sickness allowance is voluntary on both sides: an employer cannot require it and an employee cannot demand it unilaterally.

What happens after 300 days

Once the maximum is reached, no further sickness allowance is paid for the same illness until you have been fit for work for a year. There is one exception: if you return to work and work continuously for at least 30 calendar days, you can get 50 more days. Otherwise the next step is usually kuntoutustuki — a fixed-term disability pension, applied for from your own earnings-related pension provider.

Sickness allowance is taxable income and it accrues pension. A tax card calculated for wages does not fit a benefit — order a revised tax card from OmaVero so the withholding lands correctly. The same income-based formula also applies to rehabilitation allowance.