People born in 1949 or earlier can receive a daily allowance and unemployment pension if they fulfil the criteria below.

Unemployment pension is always preceded by a period of unemployment allowance. You can receive unemployment allowance if you are fit for work, have registered as a job seeker at an employment office and you satisfy the condition relating to the length of previous employment. You satisfy the condition if you have been employed for at least 43 weeks in the 24-month period before becoming unemployed.

Payment of the daily allowance starts after a qualifying period of 7 working days. You do not receive a daily allowance for the period of holiday pay paid at the end of an employment contract.

Unemployment allowance is paid for a maximum of 5 days per week and for a maximum of 500 days. If you reach the age of 57 before the end of the 500 days, you are entitled to continued unemployment allowance. In this instance, the daily allowance continues until the end of the month when you reach the age of 60.

You can receive unemployment pension when you have reached the age of 60 and you have first received unemployment allowance for the maximum period of 500 days. You should also have earned earnings-based pension for at least five years during the last 15 calendar years.

If you were born in 1950 or later, you are not entitled to unemployment pension. You are entitled to continued unemployment allowance until the end of the month when you reach the age of 65 if you reached the age of 59 before the end of the maximum 500-day period. In addition, you should also be in pension insured employment for at least five years during the last 20 years.

Apply for unemployment pension on the unemployment pension application form (pdf).

Enclose an unemployment certificate with your application. The certificate is available from your daily allowance provider, either your unemployment fund or Kela office. You must also apply for a certificate of continuing unemployment from the employment office to accompany your application.

One application is enough, even if you are applying for an earnings-based pension as well as the national pension and even if you have possibly been employed in both the private and the public sector.

Unemployment pension starts when you have reached the age of 60 if you have received unemployment allowance for no less than the 500-day maximum period. If the maximum period has not been fully used up, the pension starts only from the beginning of the month following the conclusion of the maximum period.

Your unemployment pension is formed from the pension that has accrued at work. Unemployment pension also includes earnings-related unemployment allowance as well as earnings-related increment for credited periods that has accrued from training and rehabilitation benefits up to 31 December 2004. Since 2005, pension also accrues from certain earnings based on social security benefits. The share of pension for projected pensionable service is not added to the amount.

At retirement age for the old-age pension, the pension for projected pensionable service is added to unemployment pension without separate application, provided that you are entitled to pension for projected pensionable service. The pension amount does not change if you are not entitled to a pension component for projected pensionable service.

Unemployment pension is not paid for those months when a pension recipient’s monthly earnings exceed 656,08 euros (2011 level).

If you intend to go to work where your earnings will exceed the permitted limit, you must notify the Seafarer’s Pension Fund in advance. Unemployment pension to which you are not entitled can be reclaimed. An interruption in pension lasting more than one year results in the pension being stopped. Unemployment pension is paid in full if earnings remain below 656,08 euros per month.