Becoming a member

Fund membership means you can get earnings-related allowance while unemployed

By joining an unemployment fund you are eligible for an earnings-related allowance based on your salary level. If you do not belong to an unemployment fund, you will receive the basic unemployment benefit from Kela.

Earnigs-related allowance can be paid id you have been working for six months while being a member of an unemployment fund. You can find more information on the requirements for the allowance here.

How to join an unemployment fund

You can join an unemployment fund when you are employed or self-employed. This work does not have to be permanent, and even short stints of work are enough to join.

You can find a list of Finnish unemployment funds here: Funds’ contact information. A membership application can be found on each fund’s website.

Some funds are sector-specific, i.e. joining a fund may require you to be employed in a specific profession or sector. Others require you to have specific training. In addition to this, there are also funds that anyone can join.

Membership fees are either percentage-based or a certain monthly or annual fee

Members of the unemployment fund pay a membership fee to finance part of the benefits and to cover the administrative costs of the fund.

The average cost of membership for a person earning EUR 3000 per month is EUR 79.

A list of each fund’s membership fees is available here.

It is a good idea to join an unemployment fund while you are a student

By joining the unemployment fund, you can begin accumulating the right to the earnings-related allowance before you graduate. By doing this, you can receive your earning allowance if you do not get a job immediately after graduation.

In order to receive the earnings-related allowance, you must have worked for at least 6 months. This work does not need to have been completed as a single period. If you study, you can accumulate working weeks from up to 9 years. In order to accumulate working weeks, you need to have worked for at least 18 hours per week. In addition, you must be a member of the unemployment fund during the working weeks in question.

You can swap to a different unemployment fund

If you want to change your unemployment fund, please contact the new fund and authorise your new fund to terminate your old membership. This will continue your membership in the new fund without interruptions.

If you change unemployment funds in such a way that there is a maximum of one month between the memberships, the working and membership periods accumulated in the old fund will also be counted in the new one.