How to claim sickness allowance

If you are in paid employment and your employer continues to pay you during a period of illness, your employer will claim the sickness allowance. The sickness allowance is paid directly to your employer.

1. Claim sickness allowance online. Please note that the e-service is available in Finnish and Swedish only.

   • You should state your employer and the contents of your work in the application. If you have more than one places of employment, inform from which work you have been absent and which work you have been able to perform.

   • If you are self-employed or a farmer, you can claim YEL and Mela allowance online. Kela forwards your claim to the relevant pension provider or to Mela.

2. Scan or take a photo of the supporting documents and send them over the internet.
   You may wish to write a cover note for example if the document you are sending is relevant to several different benefits.

   • If you have a medical certificate on the 'A' form, you are usually eligible for up to 60 days of sickness allowance. A more detailed medical certificate on the 'B' form is needed after that.
   •  The sickness allowance is determined on the basis of an annual income. Kela usually receives information on wages and salaries from the national incomes register, so this information need not be reported to Kela separately.  Read more on the annual income.
   • If you have sustained an injury in a traffic accident or other incident, or you have an occupational disease, you can submit the required information via Kela's e-service system or enclose with your claim the form Accident report (SV 143e, PDF).
3. Visit our e-service to see if your application has been decided, how much you will get and when you will be paid. You will also receive a written decision by post. The decision will not be sent to you by post if you have authorised Kela to send you documents in electronic form only. This can be done in the e-service.

Alternatively you can complete and print out a sickness allowance claim form (SV 8e, PDF). Mail your application along with the supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.

When to claim

File your claim within 2 months of the onset of work incapacity.

Renewing a claim

You need not file a new claim if the same illness recurs within 30 calendar days of the end of the previous sickness allowance period. Instead, you should submit to Kela a new medical certificate stating that you are unfit for work. Kela may ask you to present a medical certificate on the 'B' form if you are ill for an extended period.

Additional documentation

Kela may ask you to provide additional documentation about your health status or work circumstances. Kela may also refer you to further tests for example in a treatment or examination facility in order to obtain an assessment of your health and your capacity for work. This will normally be free of charge to you. You will be sent a written decision about the sickness allowance by Kela, in which you will be informed about the further tests. Payment of the sickness allowance usually continues until such time as the tests have been completed and it is possible to come to a decision on your claim.

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