How do savings and assets affect housing allowance?

Your assets will affect your housing allowance if

• you live in a household that consists of one adult aged 18 or over and you have assets of more than EUR 10,000
• you live in a household that consists of two or more adults aged 18 or over and your household has assets of more than EUR 20,000 in total. 

If your household’s assets exceed the above limits of EUR 10,000 or EUR 20,000, we will take 20% of the excess into account as income.

Kela will deduct the long-term debts of the household members from the assets.

If the household’s combined total assets amount to EUR 50,000 or more, the household cannot get housing allowance.

All funds (money) that you have in any kind of account count as assets that have an impact on how much general housing allowance you can get. In addition to deposits, other examples of these kinds of assets that affect the allowance include funds in an equity savings account, receivables and cryptocurrencies. Kela will also take any interest paid on the funds in your accounts into account as capital income when calculating your housing allowance.

Funds in your accounts have an impact on your housing allowance if your total assets with those funds included exceed the asset limit of EUR 10,000 in a one-adult household or EUR 20,000 in a two-adult household.

When you apply for general housing allowance, tell Kela about your deposits and the funds in your accounts even if you do not exceed the asset limit that applies to you. Give Kela this information for all your accounts. However, Kela will not take any deposits in an ASP account into account when calculating the allowance.

Deduction for disposable income

Kela will first apply a fixed deduction of EUR 2,000 to your deposits. This is called a deduction for disposable income (käyttövaravähennys), and the amount covered by the deduction does not affect your general housing allowance.

The deduction for disposable income is personal, which means that Kela applies it separately to each household member’s deposits. Even so, you must still tell Kela about all your deposits and their total amount. Kela will apply the deduction for disposable income automatically.

Kela will deduct the long-term debts of the household from the amount of assets. Examples of long-term debts include the following:

• housing loan
• student loan
• other long-term debts (including non-bank loans).

Kela will not deduct the following:

• unsecured consumer loans (kulutusluotto)
• other short-term debts.

However, Kela will apply a deduction of EUR 2,000 for disposable income to deposits in accounts. This amount does not affect the housing allowance.

For example the following affect your housing allowance:

• savings and deposits
  • (minus a deduction for disposable income of EUR 2,000 per person)
• real estate
  • (excluding a holiday home in your own use, such as a summer house)
• shares in a housing company
• publicly listed shares, which means shares issued by publicly listed companies
• shares in mutual funds
• bonds or equivalent
• insurance savings
• forest holdings
• business and farming assets
• shares in corporate assets.

For example the following do not affect your housing allowance: 

• deposits in an ASP account
• a holiday home in your own use, such as a summer house
• a share in the undistributed estate of a deceased person
• vehicles
• timeshares
• shares that are not listed publicly
• assets that are not at your disposal
• seized assets
• assets that belong to a child under 18 who lives in the same household
  • ​​​the income of a child under 18 is taken into account only if they apply for housing allowance alone or together with their partner.