How income affects financial aid for students in higher education

A financial aid month is a month for which you have been paid the study grant or the student housing supplement. Also regarded as a financial aid month is a month in which you are paid less student financial aid than you would usually get, for example because you live temporarily with your parents.

If you are paid general housing allowance, it does not count towards your annual income limit.

The following do not count as financial aid months in the annual income check:

• a month in which you only draw down your student loan
• a month in which you are only paid general housing allowance
• a month for which you have cancelled or paid back your financial aid
• a month in which you were paid financial aid even though you did not qualify for it. Where this is the case, we will either recover the financial aid from you or waive its recovery.

If your income did not exceed your annual income limit by more than EUR 348 in 2023 or 2024, you do not have to cancel or pay back any financial aid at all.

• wages and salaries
• taxable Kela benefits, excluding the study grant
• dividends
• capital gains
• rental income
• taxable grants
• survivors’ pensions
• holiday pay and fringe benefits
• freelancers’ fees
• reservists’ fees
• salary paid during apprenticeship training
• fees and compensation for expenses paid to family caregivers
• the portion of strike pay that exceeds EUR 16 per day
• income from cryptocurrencies
• taxable income and rewards received as compensation for social media collaborations
• income from abroad.

• certain benefits paid by Kela, such as the study grant, the provider supplement to the study grant and the supplementary allowance for the purchase of study materials, the housing supplement for students, the school transport subsidy, general housing allowance and child benefit
• gifts and inheritances subject to gift and inheritance tax
• interest on deposits if they are subject to tax at source
• rewards and winnings subject to lottery tax
• compensations for expenses and per-diem allowances for business-related travel
• daily allowances, family allowances and other compensation paid for the duration of the teaching sessions held during apprenticeship training
• tax-exempt grants
• income of an undivided estate
• tax refunds.

If you have other income or if you are not sure if your income counts towards your annual income limit, please contact us.

Income paid to you from abroad counts towards your annual income limit if you would have to pay taxes on corresponding income in Finland.

You must declare all income paid to you from abroad to us either in your application for student financial aid or on the notification of changes form.

The Tax Administration may also notify us of income you are paid from abroad. If the Tax Administration reports this kind of income to us and the amount reported by the Tax Administration is different from what you have disclosed, we will take the higher of these two reported incomes into account during the annual income check.

Taxable income usually counts as income for the calendar year in which it was paid to you.

However, capital gains are generally considered as income for the year in which the sale or transfer of ownership took place even if you are paid the resulting income later. You can contact the Tax Administration to check which year your income is allocated under.

You can ask us to review the preliminary decision we have issued to you. You must submit your request within 37 days of the date when the decision was issued. You can see the issuance date in the decision notice.

Ask for a review if

• you began a course of studies part way into the academic year and got all or some of your income before that
• you graduated before the end of the academic year and got all or some of your income after graduating
• you have used up your financial aid months and got all or some of your income after the last time you were paid student financial aid.

How to request a review:

1. Ask for a review by sending us a message in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish).
2. Go to Lähetä ja lue viestejä (Send and read messages). Select Opiskelu (Studies) and Opintotuen tulovalvonta (Financial aid income check). Then select Uudelleenkäsittelypyyntö (Request for review).
3. If you have studied in Finland and your income data is recorded in the Incomes Register, your request for a review can usually be an informal message where you tell us what decision you would like us to review. Please also state in your message when you began your studies or when you graduated or when you were paid your last month of financial aid. You do not need to send us a copy of your degree certificate or documents on any salary payments, rewards or benefits that are recorded in the Incomes Register (vero.fi).
4. However, you must send us information on income that is not recorded in the Incomes Register and on income that was paid to you when you were not actively studying. You can send the information as supporting documents by selecting Lähetä liite (Send a supporting document) on the front page of OmaKela. Each document must show the date when you were paid the income in question and the exact amount that you were paid (before taxes).
5. If you have studied abroad, send the necessary supporting documents by selecting Lähetä liite (Send supporting documents) in OmaKela. You must submit information on any income that is not recorded in the Incomes Register as supporting documents together with your request. You must also send us a copy of your certificate of admission, degree certificate or graduation certificate issued by your place of study.

If you cannot use OmaKela, you can ask for a review by calling Kela’s customer service. You can also mail the request and any supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.

If you ask us to review our preliminary decision, you do not need to pay the recoverable amount written in the preliminary decision by the due date.

We will process your request and issue a new decision where we will tell you whether we still want to recover any payments from you. If you want to appeal the new decision, you can submit an appeal to the Appeal Board.

If you do not ask us to review our preliminary decision within 37 days, we will recover student financial aid from you as written in the preliminary decision.

If your income did not exceed your annual income limit by more than EUR 348, you do not have to pay back any financial aid at all. If you exceeded your annual income limit by more than EUR 348, check the table below to see how many months of financial aid you have to pay back to Kela.

When student financial aid goes to recovery, it is increased by 7.5%.

You can ask to pay back the amount being recovered from you in instalments. You can also ask us to deduct it from future benefit payments.

Go to Perinnät (Recovery matters) in the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish) to ask about payment arrangements. If you cannot use OmaKela, you can send your request by post to Kela’s Overpayment Recovery Centre. The request can be informal.

The month in which you qualify for student financial aid for the first time is the starting point of your studies. However, it may not always be the month when we pay you student financial aid for the first time. For example, if you start your studies on 1 September but you decide to draw student financial aid from November onwards, you will still be considered to have started your studies in September.

If you qualify for student financial aid only from the beginning of the month following the month in which you started your studies, the month you started your studies in will not be counted as a month of active study in the annual income check. You can be paid student financial aid for months in which you have at least 18 days of active study.

Teaching usually begins in September at Finnish institutions of higher education for degree programmes with an autumn start. However, if you have applied for and been granted student financial aid from August onwards, your studies will be considered to have started in August.

When we carry out the annual income check, you are considered a student from the date on which you registered as attending for the first time. If you register as absent at the beginning of your studies, your income is not subject to the annual income check.

If you are enrolled in a university for post-graduate studies or in an institution of higher education for studies that are not degree studies, we will consider you a student for the purposes of the income check from the beginning of the month in which you draw student financial aid for the first time.

Graduation means that you have completed a degree, finished a course of study or used up the maximum aid period available for your course of study.

The last month in which you could be paid student financial aid for the studies in question is considered your last month of study.

If the day you graduate falls between the 1st and the 17th day of the month, your graduation month is the previous month. If you graduate on the 18th of the month or later in the same month, that month is your graduation month.

In the annual income check, your graduation month is determined based on the date when you were officially granted your degree. This date is stated in your degree certificate. Even if you have completed all the studies required for your degree, you will not be regarded as having graduated until the date you are granted your degree certificate.

If you are enrolled in a programme that is not oriented towards earning a degree, you will be considered to have graduated for the purposes of the annual income check when you have used up the maximum aid period available for the studies in question or when you have finished the studies that qualified you for student financial aid. If your course of study has a fixed completion time defined by your place of study, the date of graduation is determined based on this time.

If you were admitted to your place of study to complete both a first-cycle degree and a second-cycle degree, you will usually not be considered to have graduated after you have completed the first-cycle degree. However, if you do not go on to complete the related second-cycle degree, your studies may be considered to have ended once you have completed the first-cycle degree. This will happen if

• you have not registered as an attending student for the second-cycle degree after the academic year in which you completed the first-cycle degree
• you have not drawn any student financial aid for your second-cycle degree or completed any study units that relate to the second-cycle degree after completing the first-cycle degree.

If we consider you to have ended your studies after you have completed the first-cycle degree but you continue the same studies later, Kela will consider you to be continuing interrupted studies and not to have started a new course of study in the annual income check. This means that we will take all the income you had in the year in which you continue your interrupted studies into account when we do the annual income check

If you discontinue your studies or stop drawing student financial aid, Kela will consider the entire year in which you discontinued your studies to be a period of active study in the annual income check. The entire year will count as a period of active study also if your studies end but you have not completed your degree or finished all studies related to your degree.

If you discontinue your studies and start a new course of study in the same year, Kela will consider the entire year to be a period of active study in the annual income check.

If you discontinue your studies and start a new course of study after the year in which you discontinued your previous studies, the months preceding the new studies are not considered a period of active study. However, if you continue your discontinued studies again at the same institution of higher education, Kela will consider the entire year to be a period of active study and the income limits will apply to the entire year.

Once you have used up your maximum aid period, Kela will not consider the months that follow after to be a period of active study in the annual income check.

When have you used up your maximum aid period?

You will be considered to have used up your maximum aid period

• when you have used up all months of financial aid available for your degree (degree-oriented studies at an institution of higher education)
• when you have been paid financial aid for the maximum period for which it can be granted for that particular course of study (non-degree oriented studies).

If you were admitted to complete both a first-cycle degree and a second-cycle degree, your maximum aid period will end once you have used up the total maximum number of months of financial aid available for both the first-cycle degree and the second-cycle degree.

If you use up the entire maximum aid period and graduate at a later date in the same year, Kela will consider your studies to have ended when you used up the last month of the maximum period of financial aid available for your course of study. For example, if you are paid the last month of your maximum aid period in April and you graduate in September, Kela will consider April to be the month in which you finished your studies in the annual income check.

If you pay back student financial aid of your own volition after you have used up your maximum aid period and you draw financial aid again afterwards during the same year, the month in which Kela will consider you to have finished your studies will change accordingly.

If you have used up the maximum period of financial aid available for your course of study and you have then been granted an extension to your financial aid period, you are considered to have finished your studies on the date on which the extension ends or on the date of your graduation. 

If you graduate and start a new course of study during the same calendar year and you are paid financial aid for both courses of study, Kela will not consider the period of time between the two courses of study to be a period of active study in the annual income check. For example, if you graduate on 31 May and start a new course of study on 1 September, the period from June to August is not regarded as a period of active study. This means that you can have as much income in June, July and August as you want.

If you pursue several different courses of study during the same calendar year, only the studies for which you were paid financial aid during the year in question are taken into account in the income check.

If you started a new course of study or graduated in either 2023 or 2024, your annual income limit will be determined based on how many months of student financial aid you were paid during the first year of your studies or in the year you graduated.

You do not need to worry about the income check as long as your annual income in the first year of your studies or in the year you graduated did not exceed your annual income limit. You can earn or be paid income up to your annual income limit at any time during your first year of study or in the year you graduate.

We will check your income in the first year of study or in the year you graduate if your annual income exceeds your income limit. If you exceed your annual income limit, you must make sure that the income you get during your period of active study does not exceed the income limit calculated for this period. You can use the personal income calculator for students (available in Finnish and Swedish only) to calculate the income limit for your months of active study.

You can also use the following formula to calculate the income limit for your months of active study:

EUR 1,040 x number of financial aid months in the period of active study + EUR 3,120 x number of months in which you are not paid financial aid during your period of active study (+ EUR 348).

If the income you get during your period of active study exceeds the income limit for this period, you should cancel or pay back student financial aid. However, if the income you get during your period of active study does not exceed the income limit, you can have as much income as you want before the month in which you start your studies or after the month in which you finish your studies.

You can check the annual income that Kela will take into account in the annual income check by looking at your pre-completed tax return (vero.fi). Please note that the pre-completed tax return may contain incomplete or incorrect information. We conduct the annual income check based on the income information set out in the final tax decision.

Deduct the study grants at their gross amount. This means the amount before taxes. The gross amount can be different from the amount that was deposited into your bank account. Visit OmaKela to see how much Kela has paid you in study grants.

The euro amount listed under Etuudet (Benefits) in your pre-completed tax return can include other benefits paid to you, such as child care allowances or sickness allowance. Deduct only your study grants from the total. Your pre-completed tax return also does not take into account any student financial aid or other benefits you may have paid back to Kela after February. You can also deduct these from the total euro amount provided under Ansiotulot (Earned income).

Some income you have been paid may not be listed in your pre-completed tax return or its total amount may be different in the final tax decision. This includes, for example, income from self-employment, rental income and income from abroad. Remember to add all missing income to the annual income that will be taken into account in the annual income check.

Only some types of dividend income and only some of the interest earned on the share capital of a cooperative are taxable and considered as income in the annual income check. Read more about the taxation of dividends (vero.fi).

You can add together the total amount of capital income that will be taken into account in the annual income check with the help of the information listed under Verotuksen perusteena olevat tiedot (Information on which your taxation is based) in your pre-completed tax return. Capital losses, withheld taxes, deductions made from your capital income and debts are not deducted from the income that is taken into account in the annual income check.

How to calculate your taxable capital gains

If you have sold shares or other assets, you can calculate your taxable capital gains by deducting either only the deemed acquisition cost or the actual acquisition cost plus any costs you incurred in making the gain, such as trading expenses, from the sales price. Capital losses cannot be deducted. Remember that if your capital gains are small, they are considered tax-exempt income.