Recovery of basic social assistance

Basic social assistance can be recovered from the recipient either in part or in full if

• you have income or assets or are entitled to a social benefit or benefits that were not available to you at the time you were granted social assistance
• you have not taken steps to secure a living by personal effort
• the need for social assistance arises from having participated in a strike action. However, in this case only the part granted personally to the recipient is recovered.

Basic social assistance can be recovered in part or in full from a person who is liable for paying child support and who has neglected to make such payments.

Kela must apply to the administrative court for authority to recover social assistance. Before applying to the court, Kela must give you the opportunity to be heard.

If the administrative court authorises Kela to recover social assistance, Kela checks your income and assets for the purpose of recovery.

Even if there are grounds for recovery, it may not be carried out because of your financial situation. The recovery may not endanger your own livelihood or that of your dependant.

Recovery from future benefit payments

Social assistance may be granted in advance against a future benefit you are expected to receive. In that case, the social assistance granted is deducted from the principal benefit granted for the same period of time. Kela is authorised to recover the social assistance from payments of the principal benefit without filing an application with the administrative court.