The four-party alliance government led by Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) has taken an initiative to tighten social assistance, the last-resort of assistance for the low- income people.
The government proposed amendments to the Social Assistance Act and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health circulated the draft proposal for comments, said the ministry in a press release on Friday.
Comments on the proposal will be accepted until June 27.
The proposed amendments to the Social Assistance Act would impose a stronger obligation on applicants for social assistance to apply for primary benefits instead of social assistance.
The primary benefits include unemployment security benefits and student financial aid. If an adult applicant for social assistance had not applied for a primary benefit payable, for example, on the basis of studies, unemployment, illness or incapacity for work before applying for social assistance, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) should assess whether they qualify for such a benefit.
If, before applying for social assistance, the person failed to apply for primary benefits within one month of being requested to do so by Kela, the basic amount of social assistance would be reduced by 50 per cent.
The proposed changes would strengthen general government finances by EUR 74 million in relation to the current legislation.
In 2024, Kela paid a total of about EUR 825 million in basic social assistance.
Most of the proposed acts are scheduled to enter into force on 1 February 2026.
According to the draft proposal, the obligation to register as an unemployed jobseeker could, in future, mean seeking full-time work. Thus, it would also be obligatory to seek full-time work under threat that the basic amount be reduced in cases where a person who has the capacity and ability to work does not work full-time, business activities are not profitable or a person is not entitled to receive student financial aid for their studies.
If the payment of the unemployment security benefit granted to the recipient of social assistance is suspended due to sanctions laid down in the Unemployment Security Act, the basic amount of social assistance would be reduced.
The duration of the reduction would depend on the duration of suspended unemployment security.
The basic amount would be cut by 20 per cent for the first month and, after that, by 40 per cent. The reduction percentages would remain in line with the current legislation.
Reducing the basic amount of social assistance would be made easier by abolishing the requirement of the two-month time period laid down in the current Act.
Applicants for social assistance could always avoid any reduction in the basic amount and any unemployment benefit sanctions by participating in employment services as required by the relevant legislation.
The basic amount could be reduced in the above-mentioned cases only if this would not endanger the means of support necessary for dignified living and if the reduction could not be considered otherwise unreasonable.
The municipalities’ funding share of basic social assistance would be raised from 50 per cent to 100 per cent in respect of those social assistance recipients between the ages of 18 and 24 who do not have family members of other ages living with them.
The funding would be reimbursed to the municipalities in full. The purpose of raising the funding share is to encourage the municipalities to employ young people at the earliest possible stage in order to keep the support periods as short as possible.
Social assistance would no longer have the earned income allowance of EUR 150 for people aged 18 or over. In future, other minor income and subsidies would also be taken fully into account as income in respect of those aged 18 or over.
However, children’s earned income and gifts that are considered small would not be taken into account as income in the calculation of social assistance.
To achieve the savings target, the level of the basic amount of social assistance would also be cut as 3 per cent for people aged 18 or over who live alone, 3 per cent for people aged 18 or over who live with their parents, about 2 per cent for other people aged 18 or over.
Earlier this year, the government brought many changes to Kela benefits, affecting both benefit rates and eligibility criteria.
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
