Special circumstances

If the parents decide to give their child up for adoption, they must contact the social welfare office of their home municipality or Save the Children. If the birthing parent is not working, they are entitled to pregnancy allowance and parental allowance for a continuous period of at least 105 working days. The family should notify Kela of the adoption in order to avoid being paid too much allowance.

If a child is taken into custody or is placed in emergency institutional or foster care, the parent can get parental allowance only if he or she is taking care of the child. That may be the case for example when the child is on home leave.

A birthing parent who is not working can get pregnancy allowance and parental allowance for a continuous period of at least 105 working days.

Social services will notify Kela if a child is taken into custody or placed in emergency care, and also report whether the parent is participating in the care of the child.

If the child has an illness or a disability and you have to participate in the care of the child in hospital or at home, you can apply for special care allowance. Parental allowance and special care allowance cannot be granted for the same time, but you can cancel days of parental allowance and use them later. If you postpone your parental leave, you must also agree on this with your employer.

If one of the child’s parents gets severely ill or becomes disabled and cannot care for the child before the child turns 2 years of age, the other parent can apply for and use any unused days of parental allowance. A medical statement is needed for the processing of the application, and the statement must indicate how the illness or disability affects the parent’s ability to care for the child.

If a child is stillborn or dies at birth or soon thereafter, the birthing parent can get pregnancy or parental allowance for a consecutive period of 105 working days. One prerequisite for entitlement to the benefit is that the pregnancy had lasted at least 154 days (22 weeks of pregnancy). 

The entitlement of the child’s other parent to parental allowance can start from the date of death of the child. The other parent can receive parental allowance for a total of 25 days (date of death + 24 working days).

If a child dies later but under the age of 2, both parents can get parental allowance. They can get parental allowance for 24 working days from the day following the death of the child, if they each have a sufficient number of parental allowance days left.

The parents can take out all 24 parental allowance days at the same time, even if they have already used all the days that they are otherwise allowed to take out at the same time.

The parent must stay off work in order to receive parental allowance.

If a parent dies before the child turns 2, the other parent or another person who is caring for the child can get parental allowance. Parental allowance can be paid for as many days as there are days left unused by the deceased parent.

The person taking care of the child does not have to be the legal guardian of the child.

The child’s other parent or another person who is caring for the child can apply for child benefit for themselves. They can get a single-parent supplement to the child benefit if they are not married or cohabiting.

If one or both of the child’s parents die, the child will receive an orphan’s pension. A widow or widower receives a surviving spouse’s pension. A widow/widower or a child may also be entitled to survivors’ pension or assistance pension under an accident, motor third party, military accident or patient insurance policy.

If a child’s parent has been sentenced to prison, the other parent has the right to use the days of parental allowance left unused by the parent who is in prison. A condition for this is that the prison sentence does not end before the child reaches the age of 2.