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Do this if your plans change or you return to your studies

Adult education allowance can be adjusted to fit various situations in life. Let us know if your study plans or work situation changes or if you want to continue the same studies after a break, we will reorganize your adult education allowance case. Please refer to the instructions!

If there are any changes to your contact information, studies or employment when you are receiving adult education allowance, please let us know by following the instructions below.

 

Changes to contact information

Has your address or bank account number changed? Easily update the new information in the online service.

 

Changes in studies or employment relationships

When you study with adult education allowance, you can apply for allowance to be paid at your own pace, depending on how your studies are progressing. Bigger changes to the right to study should instead be notified separately when they affect the right to allowance. The right to study must be valid and the conditions of the allowance must be met throughout the period during which you benefit from adult education allowance.

The easiest way to report changes to the online service is to use the messages feature. If necessary, you can also contact us by phone or email. See contact information.

If you end or interrupt your studies or study leave during the adult education allowance period granted to you, be sure to cancel the adult education allowance for the period when your entitlement to it is no longer valid. 

Check out the terms and conditions of adult education allowance.

ENG: If you graduate before your entitlement to adult education allowance expires, be sure to cancel your entitlement from the remaining period after graduation. 

If the institution you have reported changes during the adult education allowance period awarded to you, please let us know and we will make a change to your application data.

If the education or degree you provide to us changes during the adult education allowance period awarded to you, the initial decision previously granted to you must be revoked. You can then apply for a new initial decision for your new study programme.

Do the same if you are applying for allowance as a student in a re-education programme or studying in the open education system towards a degree student status, and you are accepted as a degree student later.

There is no need to report a change of field of expertise within the same degree.

If you receive a social security benefit retrospectively, that you did not notify us of at the time of application and that may prevent you from receiving adult education allowance, please let us know. Such social security benefits that prevent adult education allowance include parental allowance, Kela's study grant, unemployment allowance and pension. For more information on social security benefits that cannot be obtained at the same time as adult education allowance see the page on the amount and duration of adult education allowance.

If you move abroad for a longer period during the adult education allowance period, it will be determined whether the move will affect the payment of adult education allowance.

If you move abroad so that your entitlement to Finnish social security is terminated, be sure to cancel your adult education allowance.

Check out the terms and conditions of adult education allowance.

If you start conscription or civilian service during the allowance period, be sure to cancel the adult education allowance for that period.

Check out the terms and conditions of adult education allowance. 

If you resign or are dismissed in the middle of an adult education allowance period granted to you, please report it as soon as possible using the online service messages function. See contact information.

If your employment is terminated during the adult education allowance period, we will investigate whether your entitlement to the allowance continues. You will not lose your entitlement to adult education allowance, if your employment is terminated after the start of the allowance period for reasons beyond your control. 

If, on the other hand, you resign yourself, you can receive adult education allowance until your last working day, after which your entitlement to the allowance will be terminated. The condition for granting adult education allowance is that you have a valid employment relationship for the entire period of when you are receiving the adult education allowance.

Check out the terms and conditions of adult education allowance.

Returning to the same studies

Are you going to continue completing the same degree or part of the degree? Or, for example, have you received adult education allowance for core studies and are you now planning to complete intermediary studies? 

If you want to continue studying the same studies using adult education allowance, you can easily apply for more allowance periods by submitting a further application for adult education allowance in our online service.

It is possible to extend the allowance period if you have not yet been granted it for the maximum period of 15 months. Further information about the maximum duration of the adult education allowance is available on the Amount of adult education allowance and allowance period page.

The further application is partly based on your previous initial application. For example, the amount of allowance calculated at the initial application stage remains the same, i.e. it is no longer recalculated. You also need to submit less information on the further application than on the initial application.

You can submit a further application if:

  • you have submitted an application for an adult education allowance for the first time after 1 August 2020 and you have received a positive decision on your application
  • you are applying for allowance for the same studies for which you have been applied for or granted a right to the allowance with a previous initial application
  • your right to study is also valid for the entire period you have applied for with a further application
  • there have been no changes in your employment relationship since the initial application
  • you have agreed on study leave with your employer for the period indicated in the further application
  • you have up to four months to start the application period or you want to apply retroactively for up to six months. If you are applying for a right to allowance afterwards, please send your payment application at the same time as your further application.

In other cases, fill in a new initial application. You can find instructions on This is how to apply for adult education allowance page.

Have you started your studies before 1 August 2020 and are now returning to your studies? See instructions for applying under the law prior to August 2020.

You can send your further application no earlier than four months in advance and retrospectively six months afterwards. If you are submitting a further application for the right to allowance retrospectively, include your payment application for the same period.

  • Log in to the online service.
  • Click on the “Apply for Employee Adult Education Allowance” button to open a menu where you can select “Fill in the postgraduate application for studies for which you have already received a decision”.
  • Next, you can select the initial application for which you are making a further application. Based on this, the system will pre-fill your further application.
  • Most of the time it uses the latest initial application.
  • Complete the further application carefully.
  • Enter your employer's e-mail address in the application.
  • An employer form will be sent to your employer in connection with the further application, confirming the dates of your study leave.
  • Find out in advance whose task it is to report information at your workplace.
  • Attach the necessary attachments to your application.
  • Send the application to us for processing.

We process further applications in the order we receive them. Once your application has been processed, you will be notified of the decision by email. If we need more information to make an allowance decision, we will send you a message in the online service.

You can see the average processing time for applications on the News page, and you can monitor the status of your own applications in the My Applications section in the online service. After you have received the further approval, you can submit a payment application for adult education allowance according to your need monthly in arrears.

You do not need to apply for the allowance for each month covered by the further approval. Instead, you can choose the months for which you wish to receive adult education allowance. For instructions on how to fill out a payment application, see the This is how to apply for adult education allowance page.

It can sometimes happen that the allowance period granted in the initial application has not been used in full and the allowance months have not been applied for. In such situations, the initial decision seems to reserve the remaining allowance days and cannot be automatically granted at the further application stage.

If you no longer intend to apply for support for these periods, these periods may be cancelled at your request from your previous decision, in which case the corresponding number of support days will become available and entitlement to the extension may be granted for Please indicate on the further application form if you wish to cancel these periods from your previous initial approval.

Page updated: 14/4/2022