Partial sickness allowance

In order to get partial sickness allowance, you must be working full-time. Full-time work usually means gainful employment with a regular work schedule of at least 30 hours per week. The amount of working hours can be lower than this if your work schedule corresponds to the work schedule of a full-time employee in the same industry.

When you apply for partial sickness allowance, you must submit the following information:

• proof that your working hours have been reduced to 40–60 per cent of your previous hours.
• the salary you will be paid while you work part-time.

You must agree with your employer on who will file the information about your part-time employment with Kela (the website section for employers, in Finnish).

The work you do on a part-time basis can consist of the same tasks you usually do or tasks that are adjusted to your work capacity. The reduction in your working hours can be implemented on a daily or weekly basis, and it must be based on a recommendation from your doctor.

If you have a second job in addition to your full-time job, you can get partial sickness allowance even if you continue your second job without changing your working hours. Where this is the case, the partial sickness allowance is determined on the basis of the annual income you get for each job separately. This means that only the salary or income under the YEL/MYEL Pensions Acts that you get from the job whose hours have been reduced is taken into account.

Your occupational health doctor or some other doctor who is familiar with your circumstances at work draws up either a medical certificate A or a medical statement B for the purpose of the partial sickness allowance. If you have a medical certificate A, the general rule is that you can get partial sickness allowance for up to 60 days. A more detailed medical statement B is needed after that. Your doctor will evaluate your fitness for work and your potential to return to work on a part-time basis. The part-time work must not put your health and recovery at risk. 

If you work two or more part-time jobs at the same time, you must work at least 30 hours per week across all jobs in total.

Talk to your employers about reducing your working hours and about part-time pay. You can agree to have your hours reduced in a way that affects just one job or several, with the end result that your total working hours are reduced to 40–60 per cent of your usual hours. 

You must agree on the arrangements required for the partial sickness allowance with all your employers regardless of how your working hours will be reduced. You must notify Kela of how your working hours will be reduced across one or multiple jobs and your total working hours in all your jobs.

Your application must be accompanied by a medical statement B that includes an evaluation of your fitness for all of your jobs. You may have to provide several certificates to cover all your jobs. 

You can be paid partial sickness allowance even if you reduced your working hours before you became unfit for work. Working hours can be reduced temporarily for the duration of a partial care leave or for health reasons, as well as on other grounds.

You can be paid partial sickness allowance if you reduced your weekly working hours to 30 hours or less before you became unfit for work.

Even if you work under 30 hours a week, you can get partial sickness allowance if you originally worked

• at least 30 hours a week
• at least the number of hours considered full-time in your particular industry. 

The reduction can be made either from your temporarily reduced working hours that still meet the requirements for full-time work (at least 30 hours a week) or from your full-time hours preceding this.

Partial sickness allowance can be granted to persons who are self-employed on a full-time basis and insured under the Self-Employed Persons’ (YEL) or Farmers’ (MYEL) pension schemes.

An occupational health doctor or some other doctor familiar with your circumstances at work will evaluate your fitness for work and your potential for working on a part-time basis without risking your health and recovery. Discuss with your doctor which tasks you must give up and which you can still do while reducing your hours to 40–60 per cent of what they were. 

You must state in your application how you plan to reduce your workload.

If you have a second job in addition to your full-time self-employment, you must reduce the amount of work you do as a self-employed person in the manner described above. You can continue in your second job, however.

After you have been paid partial sickness allowance for the maximum period of time, you can get partial sickness allowance again for the same illness only after you have been fit for work for a continuous period of at least a year. If you return to work after you have been paid partial sickness allowance for the maximum period of time, you can get an additional 50 days of partial sickness allowance once you have worked for a continuous period of at least 30 calendar days. 

During the period of 30 calendar days, you can only have your usual days of weekly leave, such as weekends, mid-week holidays and shift-related days off. For example, days of annual leave, accrued days off (also known as pekkaspäivät in Finnish) and absences caused by your own illness or your child’s illness do not count as days you have been working.

If you fall ill with a completely new illness after you have been paid partial sickness allowance for the maximum period of time, you can get partial sickness allowance even if you have been fit for work for less than a year. Your illness will be considered a new illness if it did not make you unfit for work during the previous partial sickness allowance period.

If your part-time work is temporarily interrupted due to, for instance, annual holiday, illness or your child’s illness, you can be paid partial sickness allowance as usual during the interruption. This only applies, however, if the agreement you made with your employer on your part-time employment remains valid during the interruption.

If the agreement you made with your employer on your part-time employment ends for the duration of the interruption and continues after the interruption, the payment of partial sickness allowance ends for the duration of the interruption and continues again afterwards in accordance with the agreement on your part-time employment. Partial sickness allowance will continue to be paid without a waiting period if

• you were incapable of working during the interruption (you can apply for sickness allowance for the duration of the interruption)
• you have been granted rehabilitation allowance for the duration of the interruption.

However, if you were fit for work during the interruption, a waiting period will be determined for the partial sickness allowance paid after the interruption. The waiting period is defined as follows:

• the first day of illness if the previous period of partial sickness allowance ended less than 30 days earlier
• the first day of illness and the following nine working days if the previous period of partial sickness allowance ended more than 30 days earlier.

You should submit your application for partial sickness allowance as soon as you have made an agreement with your employer on starting part-time work. The application must, however, be submitted at the latest within two months of the start of your incapacity for work.

• A medical certificate A or a medical statement B from an occupational health doctor or some other doctor who is familiar with the circumstances at work
• Information on the agreement you have made on your part-time employment
  • If you are employed, agree with your employer on who will provide the information on your part-time employment to Kela.
  • If you are self-employed, state the required information on the arrangements you have made for the period of time you will work part-time in your application.

Submit a medical certificate and the agreement on your part-time employment to Kela. An application is typically not required.

You and your employer can make changes to the agreement on your part-time employment while you are working part-time. If you realise that you are not able to work even on a part-time basis because of your illness, you have the right to sickness allowance. Contact your occupational healthcare provider as well to determine the availability of rehabilitation.

Tell Kela if

• your part-time employment ends before the agreement on part-time employment expires
• your part-time agreement is cancelled temporarily
• your part-time agreement is revised or suspended (for example, due to a change in your working hours, the way in which the reduction in hours is worked out or the duration of the agreement, because you or your child are ill, because you go on annual leave, or because your employment contract ends). In these situations, you may be able to get sickness allowance if you remain unfit for work.
• you receive a compensation from abroad during the time you are paid sickness allowance
• your confirmed income under the YEL Pensions Act or MYEL Pensions Act changes and this change applies to the time before your sickness allowance period
• you start rehabilitation arranged by some other organisation than Kela.

In this way, the benefit is paid to the correct amount and you also do not lose any benefit due to you.

If you do not notify Kela of the changes, you may be paid benefits you do not have the right to. In that case, the benefits will be recovered from you later.

If your circumstances change, please check how these changes could affect other benefits you get from Kela.