Benefits + income = Here’s the correct formula for combining work with your studies
How much can I earn if Kela pays me student financial aid? Will I have to pay some of my financial aid back to Kela? We know the feeling – figuring out the math between your benefits and your income is not exactly simple. Read on for tips on how to successfully combine your student financial aid with income from other sources.
How much can students earn on top of financial aid?
If Kela pays you student financial aid, your annual income must not exceed a certain annual income limit. This income limit is affected by the number of months for which you take out financial aid. The fewer the months of financial aid you take out, the more income you can make during the year. Exactly when you earn this income during the year does not matter.
If you are paid student financial aid for nine months during the year, your maximum income limit for the year is EUR 20,127. If, however, you are paid student financial aid for 10 months during the year, your maximum income limit is EUR 17,890.
Did your employer just pay you a little bit extra? Have you been offered some extra shifts next month? Keep track of how much you earn, and if it feels like you’re making a lot of money, you can always cancel your student financial aid for the coming months.
You must keep track of your income yourself. One way to check your income limit for student financial aid is to visit the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish). If you realise that you are about to exceed your annual income limit, you should cancel your student financial aid payments for the coming months. This will also increase your annual income limit, which means that you can make those extra euros without needing to worry about it.
Check your income limit in the OmaKela e-service.
Your income must stay below your income limit also in the year when you start your studies and when you graduate. If your income for the entire year exceeds your annual income limit, you need to make sure that the income you earn during your months of active study remains below the income limit that applies to those months. If you do this, you can make as much money as you want in other months.
If you cancel student financial aid payments in advance, you cannot take out student loan instalments whose disbursement date is later than the date on which your financial aid was cancelled. If you have already taken out your entire student loan before you cancel your student financial aid for specific months, you do not need to pay back any student loan instalments you have already received.
Read more about how cancelling student financial aid payments affects your student loan.
Please note that students will be transferred from the general housing allowance scheme to the student housing supplement scheme on 1 August 2025. If you decide to cancel student financial aid payments in the future, you will also not be paid your housing supplement for the cancelled months. This is why keeping track of your income will be even more important in the future.
Tip
It is up to you to decide which month’s financial aid payment you want to cancel or pay back. If you are paid the student housing supplement in the autumn of 2025, we do not recommend that you cancel the financial aid you get in the second half of 2025. What you should do is return financial aid payments made to you in the first half of 2025 on your own initiative because the amount of aid you pay back is lower as the housing supplement is not included.
The same income limits apply to the student housing supplement as do to the rest of your student financial aid, so you only need to keep an eye on one income limit during the year. The months for which you are paid the housing supplement will use up the same number of financial aid months. You must also make sufficient progress in your studies when you are paid the housing supplement.
If you are paid general housing allowance until 31 July 2025, you need to track your income on a monthly basis. Remember to apply for a review of your general housing allowance if your income increases by at least EUR 400 per month or decreases by at least EUR 200 per month.
Read more about how and when the general housing allowance is reviewed.
Your income also affects any rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation allowance for young persons you might be paid. You can work alongside your studies to earn a salary or make money through self-employment. The rehabilitation allowance cannot be cancelled or paid back like student financial aid can, so make sure to let us know if you start working.
Read more about rehabilitation allowances during your studies.
You just landed the job of your dreams with amazing pay and you’re going to exceed your income limit? If you pay some of your student financial aid back to Kela on your own volition by the end of April in the following year, you will not have to pay the increase Kela applies to recovered student financial aid payments. Keep in mind that different income limits apply to different Kela benefits.
If you have already exceeded your annual income limit, you can pay back some or all of your student financial aid either during the same year or by the end of April in the following year at the latest. You can see preliminary information on the total income you made in the previous year in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish only) in April each year, and you can use this information to decide if you want to pay back any student financial aid you were paid in the previous year without additional costs. Another way to see how much you made in the previous year is to check your pre-completed tax return or the Incomes Register.
Pay back your student financial aid in the OmaKela e-service.
If you pay back your student financial aid voluntarily, the repaid months are added back to your quota of unused financial aid months. This means that you can save up and use those months of financial aid for students in higher education again at a later date.
Use the OmaKela e-service to check how many months of student financial aid are available to you.
Please note that students will be transferred from the general housing allowance scheme to the student housing supplement scheme on 1 August 2025. If you decide to pay back student financial aid in the future, you will also have to pay back your student housing supplement.
Read more about the planned changes to housing assistance for students.
If you are paid rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation allowance for young persons during your studies, your income may affect the amount of rehabilitation allowance paid to you. If your income exceeds the income limit during the school term, the excess will be deducted from the rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation allowance for young persons paid to you. Please note that you cannot cancel your rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation allowance for young persons in advance or pay it back like you can student financial aid payments.
Read more about how your income affects rehabilitation allowances.
I’ve earned so much money that I’ve exceeded the income limit. All I can do now is wait for Kela to contact me, right? You are right on the money, but we recover student financial aid with a slight delay. Now is the best moment to make sure you have some money set aside to pay the recovered student financial aid payments to Kela.
If you cannot voluntarily pay back student financial aid that was overpaid to you in the previous year, we will recover the excess from you in the following year. When student financial aid goes to recovery, it is increased by 7.5%. For example, if you were paid too much student financial aid in 2024 and you cannot pay it back to us voluntarily by the end of April 2025, we will recover the excess from you with the increase added in February 2026. If a student financial aid payment goes to recovery, the financial aid month is considered spent and will not be added back to your quota of unused financial aid months.
Make sure that you do not exceed your income limits in the future. If you do exceed your income limit, you should pay back any student financial aid paid in excess to you voluntarily before we recover it from you.
Not everyone can find a job or maybe your circumstances do not really allow for you to work while studying. In that case, you can get student financial aid all year round – as long as you study actively.
You can get student financial aid for the summer if you attend lectures or on-the-job-training or if you take exams or work on your thesis during the summer months.
Learn more about summer financial aid.
If you attend an institution of higher education, you can get financial aid during the summer months directly on the basis of your application without any other explanations needed. You should keep in mind, however, that if you apply to be paid student financial aid during the summer months, those months will be deducted from the total quota of financial aid months available to you.
If you attend an upper secondary school or you are enrolled in vocational education, you must give more details about your studies when you apply for student financial aid for the summer months.
No summer job? Read our tips for making the most of your summer anyway.
You can get general housing allowance until 31 July 2025 regardless of whether you study during the summer months. However, in certain situations you will have to apply for a review of your housing allowance. Due to a change in the law, students will no longer be paid general housing allowance after 31 July 2025 unless they live, for example, together with their child or their spouse’s child or if they do not have the right to student financial aid.
Read more about the housing allowance review process (in Finnish).
You can also get rehabilitation allowance or rehabilitation allowance for young persons if you study during the summer holidays or attend unpaid on-the-job training related to your studies. If you do not study, attend on-the-job training or have a summer job, you can get interim rehabilitation allowance for the duration of your summer holidays.
Read more about rehabilitation allowances during your studies.