Apply for adult education allowance in online service
Study leave agreed upon and accepted to your place of study? Check the instructions and apply for adult education allowance smoothly on our online service.
You will be able to move forward smoothly with applying once you find out first, how the adult education allowance fits for your study and life situation. Therefore, before filling in the application, make sure that you meet the conditions of the allowance and have a place to study. If you are employed in the private or public sector, also remember to discuss and agree on the study leave with your employer. You can check the terms and conditions of adult education allowance on the How to make sure you receive adult education allowance page.
People working in the private or public sector apply for adult education allowance in two stages. For entrepreneurs, the application process is in one stage.
Have you started your studies before August 2020 and are now applying for allowance for the same studies? Please refer to the separate instructions on the page Instructions for people who received allowance before 1.8.2020. Have you already applied for adult education allowance and need your right to allowance extended? For instructions on how to complete the further application, please refer to page What to do if your situation changes.
Employed in the private or public sector: How to apply for allowance
With the initial application, you apply for the right to allowance, and with the payment applications you apply for the allowance to be paid. A two-stage application process makes it easier to reconcile studying and possible work during your studies.
You can fill in all applications most conveniently in our online service, where you can also follow the processing of your application and view the decisions.
Start with an initial application
Submit your initial application to us after you have been accepted as a student in the study programme for which your employer has granted you study leave. In the initial application phase, we will determine your entitlement for the period you are applying for. After completing the initial application, you can apply for the payment of the allowance retrospectively on a monthly basis with payment applications.
With the initial application, you can apply for the right to allowance for as long a period as your study leave is. However, allowance can be granted for up to 15 months. You can send your initial application no earlier than four months in advance and retrospectively six months afterwards.
Your initial application will determine your average monthly salary on which your support will be based. In addition, make sure that adult education allowance is appropriate for your situation and that you meet the following conditions:
- you have at least eight years of employment history
- your current full-time employment relationship has lasted at least one year
- you have been granted study leave
- you are covered by Finnish social security
- your studies are eligible for the allowance
For more information on the terms and conditions, the amount of allowance and the 15-month allowance period, see the pages How to make sure you receive adult education allowance and Amount of adult education allowance and allowance period.
The e-mail address of the employer must be provided in connection with the initial application. Therefore, even before filling in the application, find out who will submit the information to your initial application at your workplace.
It is the employer's responsibility to fill in the application with basic information about your employment and the dates of the study leave granted to you. If there are any deficiencies in the payroll data in the Incomes Register, we ask the employer to also provide your payroll data for a 12-month period and any periods of absence that may have affected the data.
The employer will receive a link in their email through which they can fill in their part. Once they have submitted the information, you will receive a confirmation in your own email.
Get the necessary attachments ready as well. You can also submit them within five working days after completing the application, but this will increase the processing time.
A certificate stating the studies to be completed, the educational institution where you are studying, the extent of your studies in terms of credits and the period of right to study granted to you are required as an appendix to the education information in the initial application. If your studies lead to a degree and you have only recently been accepted for study programme, you can attach a certificate of acceptance as proof. We also accept a screenshot from the institution’s online system as proof if it shows the above information.
Fill in your initial application in our online service. Fill in the information in the five sections:
- Basic information
- Education
- Employment history
- Income
- Employer information and attachments
You will receive a confirmation email after you have successfully submitted your application. If you have not yet submitted attachments, please add them to your application within five business days.
In connection with the initial application, permission is requested for the automatic processing of the payment application. Read about automatic processing in the Processing Payment Applications section on this page. You can change your consent at any time.
Do you need additional help filling in your initial application? Watch the "How to fill out an initial application" instructional video. The video is in Finnish.
Payroll data is obtained for the average monthly salary from the Incomes Register, so as a general rule, you do not need to send pay slips as an attachment to your application. Your employer has the duty to report your earnings to the Incomes Register within five days of payment of the salary or wages.
When you fill out the application, you will see the payroll data provided by your employer to the Incomes Register for the 12 months prior to completing your initial application. If you find any shortcomings in the payroll data, please let us know, and we will ask your employer to refine the information while filling their part.
You can read more about the payroll data that affects the amount of allowance on the Amount of adult education allowance and allowance period page.
If, when completing your application, you find that you are not accruing the required eight years of employment from a pension-insured work or business, you can indicate any periods of employment equivalent to your application and attach explanations.
If you
- have been on child care leave during an employment or public service relationship, we need proof of the duration of your leave from your employer,
- have been on parental, pregnancy, maternity or paternity leave, we need a copy of Kela’s allowance decision. If Kela's decision is no longer available, we need a picture of your child's Kela card or passport,
- have received special maternity allowance or special care allowance, we need a copy of Kela’s care allowance decision,
- have been in military or civilian service, we need a picture of your military passport or civilian service certificate showing the duration of your service,
- have been on disability pension, workers’ compensation pension or rehabilitation allowance, we need a copy of the pension or allowance decision for the period in question.
The maximum total length of the periods considered equivalent to working time that we can include in your employment history is two years. In addition, work done in an EU or EEA country or Switzerland may be included in the employment history.
Learn more about your work history on the This is how to make sure you receive adult education allowance page.
Your eight-year employment history may also include work done in an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, if the work history requirement is not otherwise met.
Work done in EU or EEA countries and Switzerland can be counted from the earliest from 1995, when Finland joined the EU, and also from the earliest from the day when the country where you worked joined the EU.
Attach a reliable statement of your employment in these countries, such as a work permit and pay slip. If the certificates are in a language other than Finnish, Swedish or English, send translations of the texts along with copies of the certificates.
In principle, you should fill out the initial application for the entire period you plan to study. For example, if you receive a benefit during the allowance period that prevents you from receiving allowance, do not complete the payment application for that period.
Initial application accepted? Apply for allowance to be paid on a month-by-month basis
Then, once you have received a decision on your initial application, you can apply for adult education allowance for payment on a monthly basis with a payment application. With the payment applications, you can apply for adult education allowance during the allowance period granted in the initial decision for the months you want, when it is reasonable considering any other income. If you do not apply for allowance in one month, the allowance period will not run either. Read more about the impact of income and the duration of support on the Amount of adult education allowance and allowance period page.
If you do not intend to apply for an allowance, just do not submit a payment application. There is no need to report this separately.
Example: The applicant has received a positive decision for the whole calendar year at the initial application stage. However, they find that they received so much other income in their account in February that they do not need adult education allowance for this month. They submit a payment application for February and apply for payment of the allowance only in the months when the allowance is necessary.
Always submit a payment application retrospectively and for a whole calendar month, even if you have applied for a right to allowance with initial application for only part of the month. When the allowance is paid retrospectively in the following month, all income can be taken into account at once and you can flexibly combine work, business or, for example, childcare with the help of home care during your studies.
Example: The applicant applies for an allowance for September with a payment application. They can apply for payment for September no earlier than 1 October and no later than 31 March. The amount of allowance is affected by other earned income and benefits paid to the account during September, regardless of the time of earning.
The easiest and safest way to fill in a payment application is in the online service. You can also apply for allowance payment retroactively for up to six months.
What is determined at the payment application stage?
The purpose of the payment application is to determine how much you will receive in each month. The following will be determined in the payment application stage:
- how much other income you have been paid during the allowance month
- whether you have received any non-payment benefits during the allowance month, such as sickness benefits
- how many allowance days have passed.
For more information on the impact of income and benefits and the passage of support days, see the Amount of adult education allowance and allowance period page.
Before payment application: deliver an updated tax card, if necessary
If your information has changed since you completed your initial application, please notify our customer service before completing your application.
Also provide an updated tax card if you want to reduce or increase the withheld tax. 20 per cent of the adult education allowance is automatically withheld, but you can change the percentage with the updated tax card. The benefit requires an updated tax card, i.e. the tax card issued for salary or the multi-page decision on the tax card cannot be used for adult education allowance.
You can order a new tax card on the Tax Administration’s website:
- When ordering an updated tax card, select another Finnish payer under “Payer of benefit”.
- In the section “Information on the benefit”, also select another Finnish payer from the drop-down menu.
- Type the payer's name as Employment Fund.
For the updated tax card, you will need information about the income paid to you during the current year and the amount withheld. Also estimate how much adult education allowance and other income you will receive during the rest of the year. You should also make an estimate of the amount of adult education allowance yourself, as you will only be informed of the amount of allowance in the decision on the payment application. Your amount of allowance may also vary if you earn income during the month of allowance.
From the decision on your initial application, you will see the full amount of your adult education allowance if you are not paid any other income during the month. You can use the calculator to estimate the impact of other incomes.
When your tax card is ready, you can download it from MyTax in PDF format. Attach it to your profile information in our online service, and you will receive it quickly and surely. Please do not choose to deliver the same change tax card by mail when ordering, as a tax card sent twice may slow down the process.
Through your own profile, you can also conveniently check when a tax card has been saved to your information. When Saved is displayed for the attached tax card on the online service, the allowance will be paid according to the new percentage.
How to fill in the payment application
The easiest way to apply for allowance payment is in the online service. The service guides you through filling the application.
Alternatively, you can apply for support using a printable form. In principle, it is not necessary to attach salary certificates or benefit decisions to the application, because we receive the information from the Incomes Register and Kela. All you have to do is check that the information on your income is correct when filling the application. However, if the information we receive from the Incomes Register and Kela needs to be supplemented, then we will need salary certificates or benefit decisions from you.
If further information is needed to process your application, we will ask you to provide the said information via the online service by message when your application is being processed.
Processing of initial and payment applications
Initial applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. You can speed up the processing of a payment application by giving consent to automated decision-making.
The target processing times of applications are:
- initial applications, 25 days
- payment applications, 15 days
Times are averages, and in individual cases and congestion situations, the processing time may be longer. You can see the current processing times for applications on the News page, and you can monitor the status of your own applications in the online service.
Concept of initial applications
You can see the status of your initial application in the My Applications section of the online service. In the online service, you also view the information provided by your employer.
If we need more information to make an allowance decision, we will send you a message in the online service. Once your application has been processed, you will receive a decision from the online service and a notification of the completion of the decision by e-mail.
Processing of payment applications
Payment applications are processed either automatically or manually. In automatic processing, you will receive a decision without the Fund employee processing the application. It speeds up the payment of allowance to your account: you may receive a decision already on the same or next business day.
You can take advantage of automatic processing if all of the following are true for you:
- you have given your consent to automatic processing
- you have provided all the necessary information in your application
- there have been no changes in your employment relationship
- you have no income from business activities
- the information on your application derived from the Incomes Register and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland Kela is correct, and you have confirmed on your application that the information is correct
- your application does not include any attachments
- a decision has been issued on your initial application
- your initial application is not pending.
A payment application is processed automatically only if the applicant has agreed to it when filling in the initial application. You can change your consent at any time in the online service. If the application cannot be processed automatically, it will be processed by a service expert. If we need further information, you will receive a message from us in the online service.
Once your application has been processed, you will receive a decision from the online service and a notification of the completion of the decision by e-mail. Decision letters leave the system on weekdays after 18:00.
You will see the payment amount and the payment date for that month, as well as the remaining allowance days, from the decision on the payment application. You can also see how many credits you have had to complete in that allowance month.
Your adult education allowance will be due for payment on the next business day. Your adult education allowance will appear in your account no later than on the third business day after the closing date. Please note that the speed of bank transfers varies. Depending on the bank, the allowance may be in your bank account already the day before the payment date indicated in the decision.
How can I appeal my decision?
We handle all applications as carefully as possible and make sure everything in your decision is in order. We also constantly monitor the quality of decisions.
Sometimes, however, mistakes can happen. If you are not happy with the decision, you can appeal it.
How to appeal
- Log in to the online service for adult student benefits.
- You can find all your applications in the “My Application” section in the upper right corner of the front page.
- Open the application that is the subject of your complaint and select “Submit Complaint” in the upper left corner.
- Select the subject of your appeal from the menu and tell us how you request your decision to be changed and on what basis.
- Add any necessary explanations in the section "Add an attachment".
- Finally, select "Send".
The appeal must be received by the Employment Fund no later than 30 days after you have been informed of the decision. You will be deemed to have been notified of the decision on the seventh (7th) day after the date of posting of the decision. If you have consented to electronic receipt of notice and the decision has been delivered to you in the online service, you are considered to have received notice of the decision on the third (3rd) day after receiving the message that the decision has been issued. The appeal instructions are also attached to the decision you received.
The Leading Legal Counsel of the Fund's benefit service shall be responsible for the correctness of the decisions to be issued automatically. Decisions on the groups of applications to be processed automatically fall under the responsibility of the service manager in charge of the benefit service processes. For more information, see section 8 of the Privacy Policy on Adult student benefits.
Entrepreneur: How to apply for allowance
You can apply for an entrepreneur’s adult education allowance as soon as you have been accepted into your studies. The easiest and fastest way to apply for it is in our online service.
The allowance can be applied for retrospectively for no more than the six months preceding the month of application.
Read more below!
Before applying
Before completing your application, please check that you meet the eligibility criteria for the allowance. You can also apply for a preliminary ruling.
Filling the application is easy when you get the necessary attachments in advance. If you are applying for an allowance for the first time or for a new educational programme, append a certificate of studies to your application. If your business activities have recently begun and your earned income from business activities is not yet visible on your confirmed taxation, append an income statement covering the preceding 12 months as well, or, if you run a limited liability company, your salary details from the company for the preceding 12 months.
Apply for a preliminary ruling if you want to
If you are unsure whether an entrepreneur's adult education allowance is suitable for your studies or whether you have enough work experience, you can apply for an entrepreneur's preliminary decision.
In the entrepreneur’s preliminary decision, we will calculate the amount of working time you have accrued and check whether your studies are covered by the adult education allowance. The other prerequisites for receiving the allowance will only be examined when you send the final application. A preliminary decision is not a way of obtaining a positive payment decision.
You can apply for an entrepreneur’s preliminary decision when you have been accepted to study the programme that your application concerns. Attach a study certificate or certification to show that you have been accepted onto the study programme or registered for the programme. Your application must be rejected if it is not accompanied by a certificate of studies.
How to fill in an application for entrepreneur's adult education allowance
Fill in the actual application in our online service under “Apply for entrepreneur’s adult education allowance”. The next section asks if you want to apply for an allowance decision or a preliminary decision. Select "Allowance decision". If you are applying for an entrepreneur’s adult education allowance for the first time, select “Yes” in the next section, in which case the application form will open.
Fill in the following information in your application:
- Personal data
- Application period and training
- Business information
- Employment history
- Other benefits
In section six, attach to your application a certificate of study stating the studies to be completed, the institution where you are studying, the extent of your studies in terms of credits and the period of right to study granted to you. If your studies lead to a degree and you have only recently been accepted for study programme, you can attach a certificate of acceptance as proof. We also accept a screenshot from the institution’s online system as proof if it shows the above information.
You will receive a confirmation email after you have successfully submitted your application.
Processing of the application
The desired processing time for the entrepreneur's adult education allowance is 25 days. The time given is an average, and in individual cases and congestion situations, the processing time may be longer.
You can see the current processing times for applications on the News page, and you can monitor the status of your own application in the online service.
If the conditions for receiving the allowance are met, you will receive a notification about the payment of the support to the transaction service or by post. Therefore, a separate allowance decision will not be sent if your application is approved. The notification also includes information such as the allowance payment dates and the amount of the allowance. It will show the maximum amount you can earn from business activities during the allowance period.
The allowance is always paid on the last working day of each month.
Why did I get a rejected decision?
Most likely the conditions for granting entrepreneur’s adult education allowance are not fully met. Familiarize yourself with the decision you received, the reason for its rejection, and the terms of allowance. If necessary, you can get more information from our customer service. If you are not happy with the decision, you can appeal it.
Please refer to the terms of the allowance. If necessary, please contact customer service for more information. If you are not happy with the decision, you can appeal it.
How to appeal
If you have received an approved payment notification, you will not be able to appeal it. You will receive an appealable decision on your entitlement to the allowance at the stage, when we have verified that the earnings from business you have received during the allowance period have decreased by at least one third. Rejected applications can be appealed.
We process appeals in the order we receive them. The processing time is approximately one month. If the decision contained an error that we can correct, you may receive a new payment notification within a few days.
You can find more detailed instructions for sending an appeal attached to your decision. Send your appeal by encrypted email to: koulutusetuudet@tyollisyysrahasto.fi.