On parental leave

Daily allowances for parents is a collective term for the following benefits:

• pregnancy allowance, special pregnancy allowance and partial special pregnancy allowance
• parental allowance and partial parental allowance

If you have acknowledged parenthood of the child at the maternity and child health clinic before the child was born or at the child welfare officer’s office after the child was born, you can be granted parental allowance for a maximum of 4 months from the birth of the child even if parenthood has not yet been confirmed by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Read on the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s website when parenthood must be acknowledged (dvv.fi).

You can get parental allowance if you live in Finland permanently or work in Finland. If you are not a citizen of an EU or EEA country or Switzerland, you also need a residence permit.

If you move to Finland from another EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the United Kingdom and your country of departure pays you parental allowance, your country of departure will usually continue to pay your parental allowance until the end of the payment period. You cannot get parental allowance from Finland for the same period of time.

After the payment of your parental allowance from the other country has ended, you can receive parental allowance from Finland if there are more parental allowance days in Finland than in your country of departure.

How much will your parental allowance be?

The age of your child affects the number of days for which you can receive parental allowance. If you move to Finland with a child under the age of 1, you and the child’s other parent can receive parental allowance for up to 320 days in total. Parental allowance days are divided equally between the parents, which means that each parent can receive parental allowance for 160 days. A parent can turn over a maximum of 63 parental allowance days to another person.

If you move to Finland with a child after the child has reached the age of 1, you and the child’s other parent can receive parental allowance for a maximum of 160 working days in total. Parental allowance days are divided equally between the parents, which means that each parent can receive parental allowance for 80 working days. A parent can turn over a maximum of 32 parental allowance days to another person. In addition, the parents of families with multiple births get half of the extension days for multiple-birth families.

Your income affects how much your parental allowance is per day. The amount of your daily allowance is usually calculated on the basis of the annual income you have earned in Finland.

Parental allowance days used by yourself

If the other parent of your child is not entitled to parental allowance from Finland or the child does not have another parent, you can use all 320 days of parental allowance yourself. You can also use any additional days that you are entitled to if your baby is born prematurely or if you have twins or more. You can turn over a maximum of 126 days of the 320-day entitlement to another person.  

If the other parent has already received parental allowance from Finland and they for instance move outside Finland, you can use any parental allowance days that are left over from their entitlement. In total, you will then have 160 parental allowance days of your own, and in addition to your own days, you can use up to as many days as are left over from the other parent.

If the other parent is paid a foreign benefit corresponding to the Finnish parental allowance, you can get pregnancy allowance or parental allowance from Finland for the same period of time. However, you should contact the authority, institution or other organisation paying the foreign benefit to check whether the Finnish benefit affects the benefit they are paying.

Child living abroad

You can get parental allowance for a child living abroad if you live in Finland permanently or work in Finland. The child may have been born abroad or moved abroad later after being born.

Kela gets information on parentage and guardianship from the population data system. If your child is not registered in the Finnish population data system (i.e. if your child does not have a Finnish personal identity code), send Kela a copy of a document showing that you are the child’s parent and legal guardian.

If you move abroad, let us know that you are leaving Finland. The length of your stay outside Finland and the country you go to affect whether you can receive benefits. We consider each customer’s situation on a case-by-case basis.

If the child’s other parent moves abroad, you may be able to use their parental allowance days as well. Read more under Parental allowance days used by yourself.

Moving to an EU or EEA country or Switzerland

You can get parental allowance from Kela if you are living abroad temporarily. Based on your information, Kela will assess whether you are living abroad temporarily or permanently. You can get parental allowance even if your parental leave starts during your stay abroad. However, you cannot get an allowance from Kela, if you work abroad.

If you live abroad permanently, Kela will usually not pay you parental allowance. . Kela can still continue to pay your current parental allowance until the end of the payment period, if you move abroad permanently during your parental leave. Kela can do so if you have worked before the payment of your parental allowance started or if you have received a daily allowance immediately after you stopped working, and that daily allowance was affected by your work. Such daily allowances include pregnancy allowance and sickness allowance. If you have not worked or received a daily allowance before the payment of your parental allowance started and you move abroad permanently, the payment of the benefit will end.

Moving to a country other than an EU or EEA country or Switzerland

You can only get parental allowance from Kela if your stay abroad lasts 6 months or less. You can get parental allowance even if your parental leave starts during your stay abroad.

In general, parental allowance will not be paid if you move abroad for more than 6 months. However, you can receive parental allowance for a stay longer than 6 months if you are, for example:

• a posted employee
• an aid worker
• a student or researcher
• a family member of any of the above.

Leaving Finland

You can get more information about the payment of benefits by calling Kela at 020 634 0200.

If you take care of a child part of the day and work part-time at the same time, you can apply for partial parental allowance. Your daily working time must be no more than 5 hours per day.

If you work for longer than that, you are not entitled to parental allowance. The maximum of five hours daily working time applies to you if

• you are an employee
• you are self-employed
• you have more than one part-time job either as an employee or as self-employed.

If you are employed and you want to receive partial parental allowance, you must have concluded an agreement on part-time work with your employer.

When you take one day of partial parental leave, the number of your parental allowance days will decrease by half a day. For example, if you are on partial parental allowance for 10 working days, your days of parental allowance will decrease by 5 days.

Parents can also get partial parental allowance for the same period. If both parents take partial parental leave, this does not count against the 18 days that they can take at the same time. If one parent takes a full day of parental allowance and the other parent takes a partial day of parental allowance at the same time, this will use up one full day that they can take at the same time.

The amount of partial parental allowance is half the amount of full parental allowance.

If more than one child is born into or adopted into the family at the same time, parental allowance is paid for an additional 84 working days for each additional child. For example, for twins, parental allowance is paid for 404 (320 + 84) working days and for triplets 488 (320 + 84 + 84) working days.

Parental allowance days are divided equally between both parents also in multiple-birth families. In the case of twins, both parents get parental allowance for 202 working days and in the case of triplets for 244 working days.

Days that can be taken out at the same time

In multiple-birth families, parents can get parental allowance at the same time for a longer period than in single-child families, if they care for the children together. In addition to the usual 18 working days, the parents can take 90 working days at the same time as pregnancy allowance or parental allowance days for the second and each additional child. For example, parents of twins can get parental allowance at the same time for up to 108 working days (18 + 90) and parents of triplets for 198 working days (18 + 90 + 90).

Giving up parental allowance days for the benefit of someone else

You can turn over all the parental allowance days that you are entitled to on the basis of the birth or adoption of more than one child at the same time. In practice, a parent of twins, for example, can turn over a maximum of 105 working days (63 + 42) for instance to the other parent or to their partner, while a parent of triplets can turn over 147 working days (63 + 42 + 42).

You can use all 320 days of parental allowance yourself, and also any additional days that you are entitled to if your baby is born prematurely or if you have twins or more. Of these 320 days, you can turn a maximum of 126 parental allowance days over to another person. 

A child has only one parent who is entitled to parental allowance if

• the other parent has not been confirmed
• the other parent is not the child’s legal guardian
• the other parent is not insured under the Finnish Health Insurance Act
• the other parent is, due to a long-term illness or injury, unable to take care of the child.

If your baby is born more than 30 working days before the expected due date, you can get parental allowance for an extended period. The number of additional days is based on how many working days earlier than 30 working days before the expected due date the baby was born. Each parent can use half of these additional days of parental allowance or turn over some or all of the additional days to someone else. 

For example, if the baby is born 42 working days before the expected due date, the parents will get parental allowance for a total of 12 more working days. The days are divided equally between both parents, so they both get 6 additional working days of parental allowance.

If there is only one parent eligible for parental allowance, that parent is entitled to use all the additional days.

If you have to participate in the hospital care of the child, you can apply for special care allowance. Parental allowance and special care allowance cannot be granted for the same time, but you can cancel days of parental allowance and use them later. If you postpone your parental leave, you must also agree on this with your employer.

Parental allowance is not paid for days when you are working full time. You can, however, work on Sundays or midweek holidays because parental allowance is only paid for weekdays (Mon–Sat). You can also apply for partial parental allowance if you work for a maximum of 5 hours a day and you have agreed on part-time work with your employer.

Working means any gainful employment as well as such activities as

• working from home
• being on call or standby
• working in a company owned by yourself or a member of your family
• farming or forestry work
• independent scientific work and holding an office of trust, if it is connected with your employment or you are paid a fee for it.

However, you are not considered to be working if you hold a position as an elected municipal official according to the Local Government Act. You are, however, considered to be working if you act in that position as a member of a municipal decision-making body. Read more in the Local Government Act (finlex.fi).

You are also not considered to be working if you are an informal caregiver or a family caregiver under the Family Care Act (perhehoitolaki, in Finnish on finlex.fi). This does not, however, apply to professional family care or to acting as a support family.

If you go to work while you are on parental leave, you should cancel your application for parental allowance in OmaKela. Working days for which parental allowance is not paid do not count against the number of days of parental allowance available. The days that you have cancelled will be available to you later. If you work on days that fall within your paid parental leave period, this may affect whether you will receive pay during your leave.

Kela can pay you parental allowance even if you study while taking care of a child.  You can be paid student financial aid and parental allowance at the same time, and your student financial aid does not affect the amount of parental allowance you can get. If you live with your child or your partner’s child, you cannot usually get the student housing supplement. You can apply for general housing allowance instead.

If you study full-time and you are not taking care of a child at the same time, you should tell Kela about it in the OmaKela e-service. If you take care of a child and study at the same time, you do not have to tell Kela about your studies.

A new child may be born in the family when there are still parental allowance days for an older child that have not been used up. A parent cannot get parental allowance for two different children at the same time. You can choose for which child you apply for the benefit.

One parent may receive parental allowance for an older child at the same time as the other parent receives parental allowance days for a younger child.

If you are applying for parental allowance for a child who has a place in early childhood education, the child cannot attend early childhood education during your parental leave. The child retains the right to the same place in early childhood education during your parental leave, if the continuous absence lasts a maximum of 13 weeks.

If you work part-time and get partial parental allowance, the child can attend early childhood education.

Find out from the child’s place of care when you have to inform them of the parental leave and the child’s absence.

You cannot be paid both parental allowance and child home care allowance for the same child for the same period of time.

If you apply for parental allowance in separate periods with gaps in between, please note that child home care allowance is not paid for periods under one month. If the gap between parental allowance periods is less than a month, you will not be paid child home care allowance during the gap period.

If the estimated due date of your baby is before your previous child turns 3 years old, you can get pregnancy allowance and parental allowance on the basis of the same annual or earned income that was used to calculate the allowances for your previous child.

This rule can always be applied when the estimated due date of a new baby is before the previous child turns 3.

Similarly, adoptive parents can get parental allowance on the same basis as for a previous biological child or a previously adopted child, if another child is placed in the care of the adoptive parents before 3 years have passed since the birth of their previous child or since a previously adopted child was placed in their care.

The annual earnings are adjusted by a wage coefficient when the annual income used as the basis for the previous daily allowance is used to calculate the new daily allowance. This may result in a slight change in the amount of the allowance, even if the annual income used to calculate the allowance remains the same.

You do not have to notify Kela that you want your daily allowance to be calculated on the basis of your previous income. We will automatically calculate whether it will be more favourable for you to receive daily allowances for parents based on the new annual income or on the same income as for your previous child.

If your annual income exceeds EUR 10,664, you can receive parental allowance at an increased rate. If you have received pregnancy allowance before the parental allowance, the increased amount of the parental allowance will equal the amount of the pregnancy allowance.

You will receive parental allowance at an increased rate for the first 16 working days. The maximum increased allowance corresponds to 90 per cent of your annual earnings.

Kela also pays the increased allowance to persons who are using parental allowance days that have been turned over to them by another parent.

The birthing parent can apply for parental allowance before the child is born, at the same time as the pregnancy allowance. It is also possible to file a separate application for parental allowance.

The other parent, the spouse of a parent or some other legal guardian of the child can apply for parental allowance after the child is born.

If you are applying for parental allowance for days that the child’s other parent has turned over to you, you can file the application immediately when the child’s other parent has turned the days over to you. You will not be able to see days that have been turned over to you in OmaKela until you have applied for parental allowance for those days.

If you take the parental leave in several parts, you can apply for parental allowance for each part separately or all at once.

Apply for parental allowance within 2 months of the start of each period of parental leave at the latest.

Check with your employer if you will be paid a salary during your parental leave. You will need this information when you apply for parental allowance. 

If your employer pays a salary during your parental leave, the employer must submit a separate application for the parental allowance. Kela does not issue a decision on parental allowance until we have received applications from both you and your employer.

In general, an employer cannot submit an application until they have paid the salary for the parental leave. You can take leave, as you have agreed with your employer. You do not have to wait for a decision on parental allowance before you go on parental leave.

You cannot receive parental allowance when you are on paid annual leave or another form of paid leave that is part of your employment, such as weekly leave. However, if you have applied for your day off to be included in your parental leave period or some other unpaid leave period, you can be paid parental allowance for this kind of weekly leave.

If you take annual leave while on parental leave, you should discontinue your parental leave and start a new parental allowance period after your annual leave. One parent may be on paid annual leave at the same time as the other parent is on parental leave.

After the end of parental allowance, you can receive child home care allowance if you have a child under 3 years of age who does not have a place in municipal early childhood education. A family can be granted child home care allowance for instance in a situation where one parent has used all of their personal parental allowance days before the child starts day care while the other parent intends to use their personal parental allowance days at a later stage.

You can get private day care allowance if your child attends private early childhood education or is in the care of a paid childminder.

You can apply for flexible care allowance if you work no more than 30 hours a week and you care for a child under 3 the rest of the time.